By Dmitriy Kalyagin
Dmitriy Kalyagin has been a business instructor at Chabot College in East Bay, California, since 2000. He is currently pursuing the MS degree in Online Teaching and Learning at California State University, East Bay.
Meet Donna H: a California community college student, in her early 50s. Donna worked for many years as a surgical nurse but due to on-the-job injury had to find an alternative career. She is working towards a program in Accounting with a goal of opening her own bookkeeping business. Donna was in my on campus bookkeeping class a few semesters back. She was a devoted, hard-working student with excellent social skills. I thought of Donna as kind of a social cohesive that brought that class together: she worked great in teams, supported others, and even brought home-baked cookies to our classes.
The following semester Donna had to take a management course online. The class was not offered on campus and Donna did not have much choice but to take her first ever online course. “I am so scared, Dmitriy!” Donna wrote in her email before the class started, “I know how to type and to use the internet but I cannot seem to comprehend how I will be able to learn on my own!” First few weeks, Donna was scared: I had to email her frequently, encourage her, and even suggested for her to pair up with another student I had known from a traditional class. After two weeks, Donna told me she might have to quit the class, “I will just wait until fall when you teach it on campus.”I told Donna to hold on and give it a few more weeks, “You still have two more weeks before the withdrawal deadline. Let’s give it more time.”
Donna became more “visible” in the class: started posting more to discussion forums, replying to specific 5-7 students she started feeling comfortable with. In the midterm survey, Donna stated, “I experienced a real dialogue and some real connection.” She stopped emailing me so frequently, became more active in the class, and finished it with an A.
What made Donna stay in the class? How can we, online teachers, ensure that our students do not drop out but successfully complete the course, semester, their degree? As a vocal proponent of online education, I frequently have to address the question of lower retention in online classes brought up by the critics of online education. Retention of online students is an ongoing issue in the California Community College System. It concerns public policy makers, college administrators, and entire communities. Community college instructors have been trying to improve student retention via new methods of delivery, teaching methods, student-centered pedagogy, and other tools. However, data show that online retention online is lower than that in traditional classes.
Academicians reported withdrawal rates for online courses at 25-40 percent compared to 10-20 percent in traditional classes (Evans, 2004; Levy, 2007; Parker 1999; Valasek, 2001). This data seem consistent with my records of teaching the same class online and on campus. On average, withdrawal rate in my online class is 33-38 percent compared to 20-30 percent on campus.
Withdrawal from online classes is a complex and perplexing issue (Levy, 2007). During my experience teaching online, I have noticed that 15-20 percent of students dropping an online course had never logged in. Additionally, students drop a class due to circumstances beyond my or institutional control: family obligations, changing jobs, financial problems. Dropout is similar to automobile accidents as it has a single symptom with many possible causes (Munro (1998) as cited in Levy (2007), p. 23). There is also so-called “healthy” attrition (Recruitment and Retention in Higher Education, 2005), which is attrition due to finding a job, being promoted, starting a family, moving to a different geographic area, or any other life changing event. This attrition has no connection to student dissatisfaction with the class, instructor, or teaching methods.
But what is in my control as an online instructor? What can I personally do in designing the online class and teaching it to enhance student retention? The key to retention is to engage students (Schroeder). While it is beyond the score of this article to discuss specific tools that teachers could use to build an online learning community (group projects, discussion forums, wikis, etc.), I will focus on what online teachers could do to instill in their students a sense of interaction and belonging:
• View your online class as a community of learners: design each element of the class with this goal in mind.
• Remember that “learning like love and food better not done alone” (Schroeder).
• Create opportunities for socialization and fun (Butler, 2003).
• Use a variety of learning activities: individual, group, class-wide
• Connect to each student in class throughout the term: get to know your students on one-on-one basis.
• Have a face-to-face meeting/orientation if possible.
• Be a visible, active instructor.
• Provide regular feedback to students and the class in general.
• Build into the class design elements that allow students to give regular feedback to you.
• Keep the Gradebook updated because adult learners like to know how they are doing.
• Use group projects
• Make connections from your class to the college-wide community and your department.
Through course design and facilitation, online educators should build a learning community in each class taught. Although this process is very challenging for both the teacher and the student, it results in improved engagement, creates a sense of belonging, and increases retention of students in online classes.
References
Butler, K. (2003). How to keep online students motivated. Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 2001-2004. Retrieved July 18, 2009, from http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/TeachingTrainingLearners/content/article_3340.htm.
Evans, D. (2004). A student’s perspective of an online environment. Retrieved October 8, 2007, from http://www.cccone.org/scholars/04-05/DavidEvans_final_report.pdf
Levy, Y. (2007). Comparing dropouts and persistence in e-learning courses. Computers and Education, 48(2), 185.
Parker, A. (1999). A study of variables that predict dropout from distance education. International Journal of Educational Technology, 1(2), 1-12.
Schroeder, R. Retaining Online Students. Virtual Lecture. Retrieved July 18 from http://www.ion.illinois.edu/courses/instructors/guestlectures/schroeder/schroeder.html.
Valasek, T. (2001). Student persistence in web-based courses: identifying a profile for success. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED466276). Retrieved July 18, 2009.