All the tutoring in the world cannot save students who run short of the money they need to pay for college. This year's Community College Survey of Student Engagement affirms as much. In the survey, known as Cessie, nearly half (45 percent) of respondents cited a lack of finances as a hardship that would likely cause them to withdraw from classes…

Variation in policies virtual schools use to calculate course completion and retention rates impacts the comparability of these quality metrics. This study surveyed 159 U.S. virtual schools examining the variability in trial period and course completion policies--two policies that affect course completion rates. Of the 86 respondents, almost 70%…

The goal of this study was to illustrate survival analysis with higher education data and gain insight into a limited set of factors that predict when students passed their first-year examination at a Dutch university. Study participants consisted of 565 first-year students in four departments. Data were collected on when students pass their…

Academic dismissal resulting from poor scholastic achievement is an unfortunate reality at American universities, and one that involves students, faculty, and academic advisers. This chapter analyzes learning outcomes of the academic dismissal process for first-generation college students (FGS) resulting from a year-long study conducted at a…

From individual longitudinal data for a full cohort of first-entering students who embarked on short programs in Spain and were observed over a 7-year period ending in 2003, we analyze the probability that an individual will drop out, transfer, or graduate from a university school program. The statistical analysis is carried out in a…

This article reports findings from a qualitative case study whose main focus was on how four 10-11-year-old dyslexic pupils coped with the demands of classroom reading during their final two years (Years 5-6) at a primary school in the north of England. Data were also collected on more general issues associated with the pupils' experiences of…

This study applied a multinomial HOLM technique to examine the extent to which the institutional climate for diversity influences the different types of college student withdrawal, such as stop out, drop out, and transfer. Based on a reformulation of Tinto's model along with the conceptualization of institutional climate for diversity by Hurtado…

A 16-week, bi-weekly, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)-based aggression management training course was conducted with a limited sample of behavioural school students in New South Wales. Attendance, withdrawal and suspension rates over the training period were compared to those of a control period. Parent and teacher feedback, assessed at pre-…

Data analysis is critical to educational planning. Determining the number of school leavers is crucial for a school board when planning for interventions and supports. In researching the number of early school leavers in the province of Prince Edward Island, the method in which the data were reported affected the rates. Two critical considerations…

This study empirically examines the instructional value of online video lectures--videos that a course's instructor prepares to supplement classroom or online-broadcast lectures. The study examines data from a classroom course, where the videos have a slower, more step-by-step lecture style than the classroom lectures; student use of videos is…

This study employed a quantitative research design to examine the predictive relationships between social presence and course retention as well as final grade in community college online courses. Social presence is defined as the degree of one's feeling, perception and reaction to another intellectual entity in the online environment. Course final…

In this study I explore a lack of cohesion between two Alberta government policy documents that are intended to address the problem of early school leaving of disenfranchised urban Aboriginal youth. The research explores the question of whether this lack of cohesion is reflected in educational practice for this population of learners. This issue…

This article examines utilization of online training courses in a Midwest-based landscaping company in the United States. The company had implemented online training to facilitate employee development for their 5,000 employees who were in locations throughout the United States. The courses had been in place for about a decade before the…

Public universities are currently facing a challenge in determining how to deliver quality instruction in the face of severe fiscal constraints. With recent technological advances, courses streamed over the Internet (i.e., lecture capture) are now becoming common. However, little research has been published that specifically examines student…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss one instructional design that leverages problem-based learning and game structures as a means of developing innovative higher education courses for students as responsive, lived experiences. This paper reviews a curricular redesign that stemmed from the evaluation of an introductory course in computer…