Online College May Lower The Number of Dropouts!
About half of all Americans who enroll in college never finish what they started, according to the Lumina Foundation of Education. Some states have recently begun working to change that and students are finding that college distance learning classes fit into their life.
Through the alliance, Complete College America, representatives from 17 states plan to work with colleges and universities to improve graduation rates, according to a March 2010 Associate Press report. High schools in Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Mexico plan to next year allow students to test for college in the 10th grade. Students who pass the college exams can earn their diplomas immediately and move on to community college if they want, while others would gain an understanding of college expectations and be able to retest in their junior and senior years, The New York Times reported.
The U.S. Department of Education has identified full-time jobs, delayed college entry, dependants and alternative high school credentials as being among the college completion risk factors, according to the Pew Research Center. A student's single parent and financially independent status can also make a difference, the 2002 research center information suggests. At the time, African-American and Hispanic undergraduates reportedly maintained more of these risk factors than white undergraduates did.
More recently, the percentage of Hispanic students in particular has been increasing, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. An American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy report noted that fewer Hispanic students complete college than those of other racial and ethnic groups. At the average college or university, 51 percent of Hispanics complete a bachelor's degree in six years as compared with 59 percent of white students who do, the "Rising to the Challenge" report noted.
Likewise, online college classes tend to appeal to adults, according to the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, and online college enrollment numbers also have been rising. Online college enrollment for fall 2008 had increased by 17 percent over the previous year, with 4.6 million students (one-quarter of all college students) taking at least one online college class, a Sloan Consortium study noted. One study dating back to 2000 found that online college drop out rates can extend beyond 40 percent at some institutions, according to a report from the United States Distance Learning Association. Students who enroll in online college programs because they're too busy for classroom courses might nevertheless have a hard time keeping up with their studies, reports in the Chronicle of Higher Education and USA Today noted.
Rising to the Challenge recommends that colleges and universities focus on and commit to high levels of retention and completion; that they provide Hispanic students with better consumer information, including information about schools within their academic and financial reach and schools with successful Hispanic student track records; that they improve financial aid counseling; and that they encourage students to attend more selective schools, if they qualify. The report also recommends tying university aid to school performance standards, including student graduation and labor-market success, rather than on enrollment.
It's becoming increasingly less common for students, and working adults particularly, to enroll at one institution and remain there for their entire college education, the American Council on Education has reported. Some 60 percent of bachelor's degree recipients attend more than one institution (in some instances taking classes at two different institutions simultaneously or moving among multiple institutions), with non-enrollment intervals in between, the council noted. When it comes to online college programs specifically, studies have shown a strong relationship between self-motivation and academic persistence, according to the Distance Learning Association report. Studies and reports have also suggested that successful distance learning programs include those where instructors maintain personal contact with students, let them know in advance what's required of coursework, provide quick responses to their questions and concerns, offer interactive elements such as message boards and provide flexible course formats that better enable students to juggle their studies with work and family responsibilities.
States aren't alone in their efforts to improve college graduation rates. Institutions of higher education, along with non-profit organizations such as the Lumina Foundation and the National Association of System Heads, have been doing the same. A university in Texas offers an online "degree completion" bachelor's degree program that reportedly provides as many as 59 hours of college credit for technical and experiential credit. A community college and university in Arizona have teamed up to point students toward coursework that's required for certain degrees, to guarantee these students admission to the university and to allow them limits on annual tuition increases, according to a March report in the Sierra Vista Herald. The USA Today article reported a California college is working to add a personal touch to online classes via a program that allows professors to deliver lessons and messages to students with Webcam video recordings and to hold live video conversations with students through the program, Skype.
Meeting the needs of students in multiple life situations, online education allows new and returning students the convenience they demand. For careerists, a distance learning master degree can be undertaken while keeping up with the responsibilities their job demands.
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