Hyllegard
& Deng (2008) set out to examine the reasons why attrition rates from
online courses were high at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New
York. To accomplish this they collected
information from the online students in the fall of 2003. Of the original 685 students, 190 withdrew
from withdrew from at least one online course.
The overall attrition rate for the online sections of these courses was
26% compared to 12% in traditional sections of the same courses. Hyllegard
& Deng received survey responses from 56 of these students; 35 who had
officially withdrawn and 21 who had unofficially withdrawn. Students who unofficially withdraw did not
complete the college’s process for withdrawing from a course, resulting in a
failure of the course or receiving an incomplete for the course. Both Students who officially and unofficially
withdrew from courses cited lack of time or personal problems (61%), the online
format of the class (30%) and technological issues (9%). They expressed that while they had enough
time each week to keep up with their courses that the classes had required more
reading and writing than they had expected.
When
compared to the college student body as a whole, students who officially
withdrew were more likely to have registered for a heavier course load, have a
higher GPA, be a full-time student, and to have completed their developmental
course requirements. They determined
through examining course logs, that students who had officially withdrawn had
logged on to the course 10 or more time, which indicated that they made a
concerted effort to engage with the course materials before choosing to
withdraw from the course. Hyllegard
& Deng conclude that students who officially withdrew were more likely to
have been overextended and that demands in their personal life required them to
reduce their temporarily reduce their course load in order to.
In
contrast, students who unofficially withdrew were more likely than those who
officially withdrew to be Hispanic, have a lower entering GPA, enroll in few
credits, to have not completed their developmental coursework, and were more
likely to take a higher proportion of their courses online. These students were less engaged with the
course material, and were more likely to report withdrawing due to the online
format (40%). These students also had
far more dismal outcomes for the semester with an average semester GPA of only
0.6 and having on average a 0.23 ratio of completed to attempted course
credits.
Interestingly,
60% of both student groups reported that they would enroll in an online course
at Borough of Manhattan Community College again. However, as the authors point out, those students
who did not officially withdraw will be at a distinct disadvantage due to the
impact their failing grades have on their overall academic record. The authors conclude that those students who
did not officially withdraw, in contrast with those students who officially
withdrew, are more likely to be at-risk students who struggling with their
course work had “hoped online education would be easier, less demanding route
to academic success.”
