Fostering retention in Online Higher Education: Students' perceptions of an intervention addressing their first-year experience

Marlon Xavier, Julio Meneses
September 2020
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Abstract

Dropout represents one of the greatest challenges faced by online higher education. This paper presents an institutional intervention aimed at fostering retention and success of first-year undergraduate students at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), an online and open university, through measures addressing learning design and academic support. Secondly, through analyzing in-depth interviews with first-year students, the paper explores their perception of intervention measures and their possible advantages or risks. Results indicate that time-related factors represent the major issue for persistence and continuance. Intervention measures such as personalized course packages which prevent overlapping of submission deadlines; flexibility in continuous assessment; and personalized support and academic advising were valued highly by most students. Future retention interventions in open universities are also discussed.

Type
Conference paper
Publication
European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) Proceedings of the 2020 Annual Conference: Human and artificial intelligence for the society of the future (pp. 389-397)

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Citation

Xavier, M., & Meneses, J. (2020). Fostering retention in Online Higher Education: Students' perceptions of an intervention addressing their first-year experience. In S. K. Softic, D. Andone, & A. Szucs (Eds.), European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) Proceedings of the 2020 Annual Conference: Human and artificial intelligence for the society of the future. Inspiring digital education for the next STE(A)M student generation (pp. 389-397). Budapest: European Distance and E-Learning Network. ISSN: 2707-2819. https://doi.org/10.38069/edenconf-2020-ac0037
Online higher education Dropout First-year students Persistence Institutional research
Marlon Xavier
Marlon Xavier
Investigador doctoral

Investigador doctoral del programa d’Educació i TIC de la UOC.

Julio Meneses
Julio Meneses
Full Professor

Professor de metodologia de la investigació, director de Learning Analytics de l’eLearning Innovation Center i investigador de l’Internet Interdisciplinary Institute de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

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