A very detailed study of attrition in a “national research university in the southeastern United States” has been published in the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. You can find the study in full here.
The study has found, not surprisingly, that online or distance education students have a higher rate of attrition than on-campus students. That certainly is aligned with findings here but the study takes this basic premise much further and introduces various demographic characteristics into the equation.
Three research questions form the main body of the study
- To what extent do dropout rates vary by program delivery mode, online vs. campus face-to-face, for master’s degree programs?
- What demographic and academic characteristics are significantly associated with dropout in master’s degree programs?
- How do the demographic and academic variables significantly associated with student dropout differ between the two delivery modes, online vs. campus face-to-face?
As recognised by the authors (Belinda Patterson and Cheryl McFadden of East Carolina University) the study is limited to one institution and one degree program, furthermore the students self-selected rather than being selected at random but there are still some interesting conclusions such as “High dropout rates have been viewed as an indicator of program quality; however, the findings of this study suggest that dropout rates may be explained by other factors as well”.
