The purpose of this study is to examine research on school dropout in open and distance education in the Web of Science (WoS) database using bibliometric analysis and to reveal trends in this area. In line with this goal, a total of 1,615 studies published between 1980 and 2022 were identified in the Web of Science (WoS) indexes. Descriptive and…

This dissertation measures and describes the factors that impact doctoral student persistence. Using a mixed methods cases study design, I analyzed institutional student record data, survey data on caregiving responsibilities, and data from semi-structured interviews with PhD students at a STEM-focused, public research university in the American…

Chemistry is often daunting for college students, contributing to high attrition rates in STEM majors. This study explored students' perceptions of the challenges in studying chemistry, including task effort and emotional costs. We examined how these perceptions, along with goal approaches, impact academic performance and retention in general…

While intrinsic motivation is often seen as the ideal form of motivation for entering higher education, students may also have external motivations related to the life after graduation. There has been limited focus on how different enrolment motivations are related to dropping out of higher education. In this study, we investigated how motivations…

Students with high incidence disabilities are dropping out of high school at alarming rates. Compared with other demographic groups, students with disabilities have the lowest graduation rates of any group in the nation. The substandard graduation rates have remained stagnant for two decades, indicating that programmatic attempts to address the…

"Re:Tension" is a short 20 minute film that follows Thapelo, a bright and capable university student, on a day where he is unwittingly forced to question the judgements of his tutors and peers, and delve deeper into his own actions, choices and beliefs. "Re:Tension" addresses the topic of institutional racism and the gap in…

Observers of education often assume measuring non-continuation -- or, more colloquially, "drop-out" rates -- among students must be straightforward. In fact, there are numerous different ways to measure the phenomenon of non-continuation that make it challenging to discuss. This paper addresses the following questions regarding…

Although Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are increasing in popularity, they have been subject to criticism due to the high dropout rate. This study examined the impact of an instructor's personalized email intervention on the rate of completion of a nine week course, which included seven weekly quizzes, and the rate of completion of the final…

Every year, 2 million first-time, full-time undergraduate students enter a degree-granting postsecondary institution in the United States, but more than one-third leave college before obtaining a college degree. This report's analysis shows that job loss has an adverse effect on college persistence for 18- to 24-year-old US working students, that…

The COVID-19 period ushered in a paradigmatic shift towards exponential growth of ubiquitous e-learning. Despite the well-documented benefits of e-learning, which received unprecedented attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, little has been reported on factors influencing student dropout rates in courses delivered via e-learning. In this paper,…

While the demand for open and distance education is increasing, it also faces high dropout rates. The reasons and solutions for student dropouts need considerable attention. This study aims to uncover the reasons for student dropouts considering the perspective of students, field experts, instructors, administrators, and support staff. Data from…

The absence of federal support leaves undocumented students reliant on state policies to financially support their postsecondary education. We descriptively examine the postsecondary trajectories of tens of thousands of undocumented students newly eligible for California's state-aid program, using detailed application data to compare them to…

Considerable research on effective instruction in the virtual classroom exists. Yet very little is known about the extent to which instructor presence (IP) based on the Community of Inquiry model (CoI), are directly related to retention and student success. CoI includes three components of IP: teaching (TP), cognitive (CP), and social (SP). These…

Dropout is a global crisis and an affliction in the United States. This study analyzes graduation rates based on prior academic achievement, attendance, and behavior at an urban American high school in Virginia over 4 years to identify who is (not) graduating and why. Using a correlational, nonexperimental design, four cohorts of graduates were…

While many papers have focused on socially unequal admissions in higher education, this paper looks at the persistence of class differentials after enrolment. I examine the social class gap in bachelor's programme dropout and in the transition from bachelor's to master's in Denmark from the formal introduction of the bachelor's degree in 1993 up…