As the director of and instructor in a graduate master's online program, keeping abreast of the latest research about how to support online learners is of great interest, not only to determine how we might improve our program, but also how we might better support our students so they will flourish and persist. Although our faculty and staff have a great deal of experience and knowledge about how best to design and support our students, we know we can do better. This is one reason why examining current research—even at the community college level and other professional programs such as nursing—is important to do. This paper summarizes some key findings that may be helpful to other programs, as well as those designing online professional development as they consider how they might foster success in all students. Although many of the findings are not surprising, they validate many of the anecdotal conclusions that we have developed through experience about struggling or unsuccessful students in our own program.
Examining Unsuccessful Online Students
One study by Fetzner (2013) examined the survey responses of 438 “unsuccessful students” at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. Unsuccessful students “were defined as those students who received a grade of F or W” (p. 13). The telephone survey was administered 2000-2001, 2005-2006, and 2009-2010. The top three reasons for students’ lack of success were: 1) 19.7%—I got behind and it was too hard to catch up; 2) 14.2%—I had personal problems (health, job, child care); and 3) 13.7%—I couldn't handle combined study plus work or family responsibilities (p. 15). Similarly, a literature review of online course dropouts in postsecondary education conducted by Lee and Choi (2010) found three major categories of factors influencing online dropout rates; they were: (1) student factors, (2) course/program factors, and (3) environmental factors. Although these are not areas instructors or support staff can control, early alert systems such as those that are embedded in most course management systems, as well as third-party products like Starfish Retention Solutions (see: http://www.starfishsolutions.com/) utilized by Britto and Rush (2013), might be worthwhile using, particularly in courses/programs where the instructor-student ratio is high. Such systems can help instructors and support staff identify strategies and/or services to foster student success and, in many cases, just let them know someone cares.
One other key finding in Fetzner's study is “The best chance of an online student getting a grade of C or better occurs when they register five or more weeks before the start of the semester” (p. 17). This is important because in our program, we too have found that students who enroll late seem to get off on the ‘wrong foot’ and have a hard time catching up. To help allay this problem, we work to enroll students early, as well as offer an orientation to all students. Orientation has also shown positive results, as demonstrated in studies by Jones (2013) and Pintz and Posey (2013). However, we have also wondered if there might be other factors at play too, such as it may be that late registrants tend to be less organized or committed to graduate study, among many other possible factors. More research might help shed light on this.
Although the pace of growth of online education seems to have leveled off in institutions of higher education, there have been significant increases (and interest) in enrollments in massive open online courses (MOOCs) (Watters, 2012) and K12 virtual schools (Watson, Murin, Vashaw, Gemin, & Rapp, 2012). In fact, five states within the United States now require high school students to complete at least one online course to graduate (Watson et al., 2012) and “the proportion of students taking at least one online course is at an all-time high” (Allen & Seaman, 2013, p. 4). Moreover, online courses are increasingly becoming the only educational option for many students in various educational settings and levels, whether or not they are prepared—or want—to enroll in an online course. Therefore, it is important to keep abreast of research that examines the supports necessary for success, as well as the factors that promote persistence. As Moore and Fetzner (2009) have noted, a key factor to student retention is establishment of an institutional culture that focuses on student success. This article only scratches the surface of some key findings—but it points to a need in research at other educational levels.
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