Retention and Academic Achievement in Online Courses: Spanish Courses Case

A dissertation, “Retention and Academic Achievement in Online Courses: Spanish Courses Case,” by Beatriz Potter, for Doctor of Education, Valdosta State University. 2013.In the past two decades online education has emerged from a novelty to become an integral part of curricula at most academic institutions. The literature exposes some major challenges to its continued growth and success such as higher student dropout rates and lower levels of academic achievement relative to courses taught in more traditional formats. An important factor in the high dropout and low achievements rates is that online classes require different learning and technical skills. Thus many students who enter online classes who lack these skills are at risk of withdrawal and failure. The overall goal of the current research was to help recognize students who are not prepared for online education and to identify their needed areas of improvement. This quantitative method study used data collected from 13 introductory to intermediate Spanish online courses in the Modern and Classical Languages (MCL) department at a regional university in the southeastern United States (the University) to identify factors that may help with these issues. Specifically, the web-based self-reported SmarterMeasure online readiness (SMOR) assessment (formerly known as READI) was implemented to help students identify if online learning was a good fit for them and if they were ready to take online courses. Data collected with SMOR were compared to dropout rates and whether students who completed a course received a passing or failing grade. The study was designed to determine if taking the assessment reduced withdrawal rates and increased the number of students who completed a course and received a passing grade. The results indicated a positive statistically significant correlation between taking the assessment and student retention at p < 0.01. A positive correlation for academic achievement was also found but the result was not statistically significant. Results related to whether any of the factors assessed by SMOR could be identified as predictors of student’s retention and or academic achievement indicated that Reading Recall metric (RR) may be predictive of student retention. The median of RR scores was significantly greater (p = 0.03) for students who completed the course in which they enrolled. Pair-wise comparison of medians of other factors did not indicate that they were correlated to student retention. None of the SMOR metrics evaluated including RR were able to link to student academic success. Taken together, results of the study indicated that use of the SMOR assessment may help increase student retention by informing them of their readiness for success in courses taught in an online format. Since data showed that only one of the metrics, RR, was strongly correlated to student retention, it may be possible to use a shortened version of the assessment and achieve the same results. More work is needed to identify assessment tools that are predictive of student achievement. Taking the SMOR assessment did not help identify students who passed courses at a higher rate. Findings are expected to help faculty, administrators, and policy makers determine if use of the SMOR assessment will benefit their online academic programs with a specific focus on foreign language classes. It is anticipated that results and recommendations may also contribute to needed information for other online educational programs, and to refine and develop policies and strategies to help with these outcomes. Losing a student has economic impact to the students and the institutions. Additionally, the study identified a need for a qualitative component such as survey and a meeting with an adviser to be able to identify the specific reasons why students withdrew and or failed a course. This will help guide the development of refined assessments that have greater predictive power.Vesta R. Whisler, Peggy L. Moch; Luis Guillermo Bejarano; Ransom F. Gladwin