Factors Contributing to Student Retention in Online Learning and Recommended Strategies for Improvement: A Systematic Literature Review

Aim/Purpose This systematic literature review investigates the underlying factors that influence the gap between the popularity of online learning and its completion rate. The review scope within this paper includes an observation of possible causal aspects within the non-ideal completion rates in online learning environments and an identification of recommended strategies to increase retention rates. Background While online learning is increasingly popular, and the number of online students is steadily growing, student retention rates are significantly lower than those in the traditional environment. Despite the multitude of studies, many institutions are still searching for solutions for this matter. Methodology A systematic literature review was conducted on 40 studies published between 2010 and 2018. We established a set of criteria to guide the selection of eligible articles including topic relevance (aligned with the research questions), empirical studies, and publication time frame. Further steps were performed through a major database searching, abstract screening, full-text analysis, and synthesis process. Contribution This study adds to expanding literature regarding student retention and strategies in online learning environments within the higher education setting. Findings Revealed factors include institutional support, the level difficulty of the programs, promotion of a sense of belonging, facilitation of learning, course design, student behavioral characteristics, and demographic variables along with other personal variables. The recommended strategies identified for improving student retention are early interventions, at-all-times supports for students, effective communication, support for faculty teaching online classes, high-quality instructional feedback and strategies, guidance to foster positive behavioral characteristics, and collaboration among stakeholders to support online students. Recommendations for Practitioners Since factors within the open systems of online learning are interrelated, we recommend a collective effort from multiple stakeholders when addressing retention issues in online learning. Recommendation for Researchers We recommend that fellow scholars consider focusing on each influential factor and recommendation in regard to student retention in online learning environments as synthesized in this study. Findings will further enrich the literature on student retention in online learning environments. Future Research Future research may investigate various data-mining and analytics techniques pertaining to detection and prediction of at-risk students, the efficacy of student support and faculty support programs, and ways to encourage struggling students to adopt effective strategies that potentially engender positive learning behaviors

Using the Research Tutorial as a Training Strategy for Tutor Professional Development in an Undergraduate Course

This chapter is part of a larger research project that seeks to investigate sustainable ways of improving group-based tutoring in higher education courses. A growing body of research into teaching and learning in higher education acknowledges that higher education institutions are regarded as bastions of active teaching and learning that encourage students’ deep learning and critical engagement. However, existing research also suggests that there is a lack of active participation by students during learning activities in tutorials; one of the reasons is the poor quality of the interactions between tutors and students during tutorials. Postgraduate students, who make up the majority of tutors, receive little formal training and lack sophisticated instructional skills on how to facilitate tutorials. By using an example, this chapter argues for the use of a research tutorial as a training strategy for tutor professional development (TPD) in an undergraduate Quantitative Literacy (QL) intervention course. The research methodology employed in this study is the lesson study. A research tutorial is a tutorial designed by both tutors and researchers that is used for TPD purposes. Suggestions for future research include focussing on how tutors notice, and attend to, the students’ productive struggles during an undergraduate QL tutorial

Integrating knowledge tracing and item response theory: A tale of two frameworks

Traditionally, the assessment and learning science commu-nities rely on different paradigms to model student performance. The assessment community uses Item Response Theory which allows modeling different student abilities and problem difficulties, while the learning science community uses Knowledge Tracing, which captures skill acquisition. These two paradigms are complementary - IRT cannot be used to model student learning, while Knowledge Tracing assumes all students and problems are the same. Recently, two highly related models based on a principled synthesis of IRT and Knowledge Tracing were introduced. However, these two models were evaluated on different data sets, using different evaluation metrics and with different ways of splitting the data into training and testing sets. In this paper we reconcile the models' results by presenting a unified view of the two models, and by evaluating the models under a common evaluation metric. We find that both models are equivalent and only differ in their training procedure. Our results show that the combined IRT and Knowledge Tracing models offer the best of assessment and learning sciences - high prediction accuracy like the IRT model, and the ability to model student learning like Knowledge Tracing

Online Tutor Training: An Instructional Design Project

This content includes both the author's master's paper and the website files for the learning management system (Canvas by Instructure).Online tutor training has been administered by a number of programs across the University of Hawai‘i, including a range of topics and delivery sequences. Though not consistently explicit, it appeared the instructional strategies often mirrored the instructional content. This research project included: Bloom’s Taxonomy, Checking for Understanding, and Scaffolding/ Zone of Proximal Development. The study involved a total of 13 undergraduate tutors, with prior tutoring experience and training ranging from 0 to six semesters. Three learning modules (one per topic) were designed and measured for effectiveness. Each module consisted of a pre-test, an explanation and application of topics, and a post-test to measure knowledge acquisition. Modules were available online for tutors to complete asynchronously in lieu of traditional in-person training. Additionally, participants were given a demographic and attitudinal pre-survey and attitudinal post-survey. Results suggest an increase in knowledge of curriculum topics and a little change in training satisfaction. Cognitive post-tests showed exceptional improvement in clarity of short answer justifications, and affective post-survey results included high ratings for application and job performance confidence. Future recommendations include maintenance of social aspects during asynchronous, online training, especially in a field such as tutoring that demands real-time interaction

Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators?

According to various international reports, Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) is one of the currently emerging fields in educational technology. Whilst it has been around for about 30 years, it is still unclear for educators how to make pedagogical advantage of it on a broader scale, and how it can actually impact meaningfully on teaching and learning in higher education. This paper seeks to provide an overview of research on AI applications in higher education through a systematic review. Out of 2656 initially identified publications for the period between 2007 and 2018, 146 articles were included for final synthesis, according to explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. The descriptive results show that most of the disciplines involved in AIEd papers come from Computer Science and STEM, and that quantitative methods were the most frequently used in empirical studies. The synthesis of results presents four areas of AIEd applications in academic support services, and institutional and administrative services: 1. profiling and prediction, 2. assessment and evaluation, 3. adaptive systems and personalisation, and 4. intelligent tutoring systems. The conclusions reflect on the almost lack of critical reflection of challenges and risks of AIEd, the weak connection to theoretical pedagogical perspectives, and the need for further exploration of ethical and educational approaches in the application of AIEd in higher education

New measurement paradigms

This collection of New Measurement Paradigms papers represents a snapshot of the variety of measurement methods in use at the time of writing across several projects funded by the National Science Foundation (US) through its REESE and DR K–12 programs. All of the projects are developing and testing intelligent learning environments that seek to carefully measure and promote student learning, and the purpose of this collection of papers is to describe and illustrate the use of several measurement methods employed to achieve this. The papers are deliberately short because they are designed to introduce the methods in use and not to be a textbook chapter on each method. The New Measurement Paradigms collection is designed to serve as a reference point for researchers who are working in projects that are creating e-learning environments in which there is a need to make judgments about students’ levels of knowledge and skills, or for those interested in this but who have not yet delved into these methods

Hybrid Learning and Standards Based Grading: Fostering Writing Instruction During a Pandemic

Hybrid learning is steadily growing in popularity and showing to be an effective learning modality to accommodate diverse student populations. The pandemic is an unexpected outlier in the overall picture of hybrid learning, and it is helpful to reflect upon best academic practices, including grading methods, to help mitigate loss of learning and to continue to make improvements in pedagogical practices. This thesis explores the relationship between the hybrid learning model and evaluation, specifically Standards Based Grading, and how this combination of methods influences best writing practices. Using reflections gathered from teacher surveys via a case study, it appears the hybrid learning model has increased the amount of real-time feedback given to students. Additionally, hybrid learning, paired with smaller class sizes, appears to have positively influenced student motivation and confidence in writing. Potential concerns are that students are not adapting to the remote aspects of hybrid learning that require self-paced learning. Teachers have found modeling writing processes to be a challenge when instruction is not in-person. The results find that hybrid learning and SBG can be an advantageous pairing. This study does not conclude that each one necessarily influences the other. However, SBG does influence digital writing instruction and can be a powerful blend. This study suggests that restructuring seat time and evaluating the frequency of evaluation are practices to better support the implementation of hybrid learning. Additionally, this study suggests that when allotted smaller class sizes, students receive more differentiated writing tasks and individualized feedback through the hybrid model

Interventions to Regulate Confusion during Learning

Confusion provides opportunities to learn at deeper levels. However, learners must put forth the necessary effort to resolve their confusion to convert this opportunity into actual learning gains. Learning occurs when learners engage in cognitive activities beneficial to learning (e.g., reflection, deliberation, problem solving) during the process of confusion resolution. Unfortunately, learners are not always able to resolve their confusion on their own. The inability to resolve confusion can be due to a lack of knowledge, motivation, or skills. The present dissertation explored methods to aid confusion resolution and ultimately promote learning through a multi-pronged approach. First, a survey revealed that learners prefer more information and feedback when confused and that they preferred different interventions for confusion compared to boredom and frustration. Second, expert human tutors were found to most frequently handle learner confusion by providing direct instruction and responded differently to learner confusion compared to anxiety, frustration, and happiness. Finally, two experiments were conducted to test the effectiveness of pedagogical and motivational confusion regulation interventions. Both types of interventions were investigated within a learning environment that experimentally induced confusion via the presentation of contradictory information by two animated agents (tutor and peer student agents). Results showed across both studies that learner effort during the confusion regulation task impacted confusion resolution and that learning occurred when the intervention provided the opportunity for learners to stop, think, and deliberate about the concept being discussed. Implications for building more effective affect-sensitive learning environments are discussed

Expectations and use of feedback in first year university: improving student and educator outcomes with FRAMEwork

A common student perception of feedback in higher education is that it is often lacking in detail, usability, and timeliness; however, many staff members resent the lack of investment students place in engaging with, or even collecting, feedback on work. Despite increasing recognition of the role of feedback in student learning and course satisfaction, few studies have sought to contrast student and academic perspectives of feedback in a discipline to identify reasons why inconsistencies between student and staff perceptions occur. Similarly, few comprehensive feedback interventions have been devised to improve both staff and student engagement in the feedback process. The research reported in this thesis seeks to address these deficits, beginning with a comprehensive exploration of engagement with feedback at a tertiary level. Two exploratory studies were conducted initially to identify key similarities and differences in the conceptualization, use and preference for feedback observed amongst staff and students in the Discipline of Psychology at RMIT University, following a detailed survey of their feedback practices. Within this Discipline, 202 first year undergraduate students (Study 1) and 25 staff members (Study 2) were surveyed regarding their preferences and engagement with feedback in the tertiary setting. Results indicated that there were several key differences in the way students and staff conceptualize and utilize feedback, suggesting that these differences may account for dissatisfaction with the feedback process. In addition, an emphasis on summative feedback and an embedded perception of feedback as a passive linear process were discovered amongst staff and students. Following these studies, a semester-long intervention intended to improve student and staff engagement and satisfaction with feedback was devised and implemented. The basis for this intervention was the FRAMEwork manual (a comprehensive guide to shaping feedback as an interactive dialogue between staff and students) that was designed based on the observations and recommendations of Study 1 and Study 2. An experimental design was used to evaluate the FRAMEwork manual using 90 first year undergraduates enrolled in Psychology at RMIT University (Study 3). Preliminary analyses of the intervention outcomes were promising, particularly in regard to enhancing feedback utility and student academic performance; however, further modifications and replications are required. In particular, it is recommended that the FRAMEwork program be delivered across the length of a program rather than within a single course