Persistence and Online Learners

My assignment for this post was to discuss the challenges that affect learners' persistence in online courses and relate those challenges to my own online teaching or learning experiences. Stavredes (2011) defined persistence as referring to the actions of learner as they continue their education from first enrollment through degree attainment. That is a broad definition that would include variables from inside and outside of the educational institution.

Created on easel.ly by Dennis Large

Researchers have created many models to provide frameworks for understanding the factors of persistence and attrition of learners at traditional higher education institutions. Those models tend to have three things in common. First, they all describe lack of persistence as occurring over time and affected by a learner's ability to create a relationship with the school. Second, the models all describe both social and academic factors that affect a learner's persistence. Third, the models are complex with each having multiple variables.

For online learners, the factors affecting their persistence can be very different from those of the learners at traditional face-to-face institutions. The biggest difference is that many of the factors of the social environment that affect so many face-to-face students do not exist online. So online learners do not typically have the extra support structure of a social environment available to most traditional learners. Also, online students tend to be older (over 24) than traditional students (Stavredes, 2011). These older students tend to have more family and work obligations and more life crises to deal with than younger students.

Created on easel.ly by Dennis Large

I created these two infographics to illustrate the variables affecting the persistence of adult online learners. The concept map depicts the dimensions of adult online learning that lead to persistence in
learning in an online setting include the ability to contextualize, the degree to which the learner is self-directed, and the dimensions of andragogy. The Venn diagram shows the variables listed come from two different models of persistence. What I find interesting (as with any Venn diagram) is the section in the middle. The variables that are found in both of these models include: ethnicity, academic performance, finances, hours of employment, family responsibilities, and outside encouragement. Where the two models really diverge is in the post-admission to the institution variables of the Rovai model. That model includes external and internal factors that may not have been present prior to enrolling in the institution. Those factors include: life crises, opportunities to transfer, academic integration, social integration, goal commitment, institutional commitment, learning community, study habits, absenteeism, course availability, accessibility of support, and teaching and learning styles.

In my own experience with online learning, I can report that I had a very difficult time with my first online class. It was about six years ago that I first took an online course at a university. I had a difficult time with the lack of a social group. I was used to having a group of students that I would talk with before and after class, and form study groups with, and generally commiserate with. I eventually got past that and adjusted my learning style for further online learning experiences. However, last year I had another very difficult experience with online learning. I tried taking a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and that was a complete failure. I ended up dropping out of the course three weeks into the eight week course. I did not end up feeling connected to the course, the instructor, or any classmates in any way. I've learned that those social connections are important to me, even in an online course. That realization has also affected the way that I teach online. I try to give plenty of opportunities and options for creating a social environment within the courses that I teach.

References:

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. John Wiley & Sons.