Abstract: Research has demonstrated that a significant proportion of community college students will not persist to degree completion. Online students may be particularly at-risk. Self-efficacy, perceived value of the curriculum, and certain demographic variables have been identified as important in both retention and persistence. We will measure these variables four times during a semester in a series of online college classes. A survival analysis will be conducted to identify at what point students are most likely to drop out of the course and how the variables of interest influence whether the students persist or at what point in the semester they withdraw. In doing so, we hope to identify critical periods where students are more likely to withdraw in order to understand the complexity of retention and persistence for community college students.
Please see attachments: Learning Inquiry Group Application, Consent Form, Surveys.
RESULTS PRESENTED BY ERICA AND CHRISTINA TO HLC ARE INCLUDED. PLEASE READ HLC DOCUMENT ATTACHED FOR RESULTS!
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 learning-inquiry-group.docx | 15.32 KB |
| consentform.docx | 16.92 KB |
| courseannouncement.docx | 11.79 KB |
| demographics-survey.docx | 16.15 KB |
| futureenrollmentquestions.docx | 5.14 KB |
 self-ascale.pdf | 18.85 KB |
| studentinformationsheet-1.docx | 12.89 KB |
| semi-structured-exit-interview-protocol.docx | 15.18 KB |
| perceivedvaluescale.docx | 83.34 KB |
| learning-inquiry-groupshortsurvey.docx | 70.18 KB |
| number-hours-worked-question.docx | 11.87 KB |
| hlcresultsclosingloop.docx | 23.21 KB |
Comments
Wow, what a great idea! I will hazard a gues that somewhere in this process critical data will be uncovered that will lead to predictive analytics in helping our students in their persistence efforts.
Thanks, Pete! That's what we hope for. We have already completed some interviews and are hoping to get more data by the end of the semester!
I love that your division is collaborating with new ideas about methods to help with our student's rentention. I like the Class Climate ideas about giving the surveys early in the semester. This could be used to help identify students who could be at risk for leaving our classes. Great work!
Catherine
I am really excited to see the results of this. Will your group continue to do this this semester?
Wow! This is a great research project. I am so impressed with this collaboration and hope to see more divisions do things like this. Excellent job. I had quite a few students drop this semester due to needing to work and help their families. I am not quite sure how to help these students, so I may be picking your brains. Thank you for taking time to submit this CATS.