campusreview . com . au policy & reform the students we spoke to gave personal circumstances as the main reason .
That would be due to things like employment : maybe their role at work had changed , or it had suddenly become busier . They might even have got a promotion and had to take on new responsibilities .
After that it was really things to do with their family situation , relationships and health . It might be their own health , or perhaps a member of their family was sick and needed to be taken care of .
With those changes in personal circumstances , I suppose the main flag there is that they ’ re usually unexpected .
How did they feel that the university or the college they were attending was helping them navigate their personal lives and work commitments while they were studying ? In lots of advertising or communications about online learning providers will bang on about the fact that their courses are flexible , but the reality is online courses are not actually much more flexible than the traditional courses . In that regard , they ’ re not catering to or accommodating these unexpected changes in the students ’ lives .
Of course , what you ’ ve got to remember is online students are sometimes described as non-traditional students . A traditional student would be somebody who ’ s a school leaver and has then gone straight into higher education . Because the online student is often older , they ’ ve accumulated a lot more responsibilities along the way . So their lives are much more complex and they do experience this wider array of unpredictable personal circumstances that cause them to drop out .
Now that online learning is much more common , how are universities adapting to this and retaining these students that are switching to online classes ? That ’ s a good question and without a doubt , the vast majority of institutions are of course trying to respond to this dropout issue because it makes economic sense : you only need a small proportion of the dropout rate to be reduced , and it greatly increases revenue .
But they ’ re not really focusing in on the core reasons why students are dropping out . What they have tended to do is focus on the learning management system and the learning website , so that it ’ s better designed and more user-friendly . They ’ re often looking at systems by which they can identify those students who are at risk for dropping out , and then they ’ re providing tutor support for those .
These are all well and good , but the reality is they ’ re not actually addressing the key reasons why the student is dropping out . How can you design online education so that it accommodates those employment challenges or those changes in people ’ s family circumstances , whether it ’ s due to relationships or health ? That ’ s the big challenge and really , that was the core underpinning of this research .
Looking at online dropout is nothing new . This has been researched for many years , but what we ’ re seeing is the actual dropout rate isn ’ t going down . A lot of institutions have been trying to address dropout , but if the dropout rate isn ’ t going down , that would suggest that we need to actually reflect upon what we ’ re doing to try and address dropout , because clearly , the current measures aren ’ t working .
You asked the students to provide ideas on what universities could do to keep them in their online studies . What were some of the most common ones ? Interestingly , when we asked the students what the university could have done to stop them dropping out , the initial reaction we got was , ‘ Oh , nothing . It was entirely my responsibility . It was due to my personal circumstances .’ That response actually echoes the response of many universities in that they viewed these dropout drivers as being uncontrollable . And because they ’ re uncontrollable , they ’ ve ignored them .
However , when we went back and really probed and tried to get some insights as to what the institutions could have done , they did start opening up and start telling us that perhaps the university could revisit its policies and processes in a way that would help them to overcome those temporary challenges that they were facing .
The sorts of things they were mentioning were , ‘ Maybe I could drop out at that point in a particular semester , but then pick up the same unit in the following semester or when it ’ s delivered next , without having to go back to the start of the course .’
Other ideas were around the actual design of assessments and making them more flexible by providing alternate assessment options or more flexible deadlines . Those kind of flexibility themes
Looking at the online delivery is not going to address the core drivers of dropout .
are something that the universities have not really got to grips with . They ’ re starting to do this . For example , this idea of micro-credentialing of courses or units that ’ s breaking the 12-week course down into perhaps two six-week components so the student can actually get credit for the first six weeks . If they don ’ t finish the second six weeks , then they can pick it up and complete the rest of that unit at a later date .
What are some of the barriers that need to be overcome for universities to be less rigid in terms of their assessment policies and timing of semesters ? It is a real challenge and I think we have to consider what we need to do in order to provide those more flexible offerings . I suppose on one side , it ’ s going to make the teachers ’, the lecturers ’ jobs potentially more challenging , but it ’ s not to say that it can ’ t be done .
Likewise , we need to really review the university processes and policies around enrolment and dropping out to work out how we can actually get that flexibility .
What are some of the most significant factors that colleges and universities need to think about when re-engaging students to learn online , particularly this year as people come back and think about ways that they want to study ? One is we need a bit of a paradigm shift in the way we ’ ve been looking at attrition in the past . We can ’ t divide the dropout reasons into controllable and uncontrollable factors . That ’ s the first thing . We need to look and try to understand the actual reasons why students drop out . And if you understand those reasons , then we ’ ve got to look at ways of accommodating those dropout drivers .
That really requires a shift in the way a lot of universities have been looking at dropout and responding to dropout . It ’ s not to say that looking at the module or unit design and delivery is not important , but looking at the online delivery is not going to address the core drivers of dropout . And that ’ s what needs to change . ■
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