Changing the Narrative: New directions in online retention
The growth of online higher education has outpaced residential enrollments for the past six years [1] and adults are a significant population of online learners [2, 3]. While certainly concerns about the efficacy of learning online have not fully gone away, online courses, and often entire online degrees, are now an established part of the contemporary higher education landscape. At the same time, persistence and retention remain important areas of concern for both online learners and the higher education institutions serving them [2]. In this paper, we will identify some of the key challenges adult online learners face, suggest an integrated model for approaching the retention of online learners, and offer specific examples of services and interventions to help with online retention.
