Internet Learning Volume 6, Number 2, Fall 2017/Winter 2018 | Page 11

Internet Learning Journal
Notably, the difference in the set
of institutions examined is important,
and is representative of the breadth of
institutional types and settings in the
U.S. Some of these are large urban,
some are rural, some are multi-campus,
and some are individual campus
organizations. By examining historical
persistence outcomes and data feature
variance within individual institutions
rather than across institutions, the differences
in likely success rates between
selective institutions and access-oriented
institutions are eliminated.
Data Sources
Details on the institutions included
in this study, including
their overall student data count
and historical overall undergraduate
persistence rate, are shown in Table 1.
The set of historical terms for each institution
aligns with the 2016 calendar
year and the semesters or quarters that
would be so included. The overall undergraduate
historical persistence rates
range from 62.5% for one of the 2-year
institutions to a high of 95.8% for one of
Table 1: Institution Detail
4-YEAR
INSTITUTIONS
Descriptor
Study N
Historical
Persistence Rate
A 57,425 88.80%
B 93,211 85.70%
C 125,988 95.80%
D 16,607 86.90%
2-YEAR
INSTITUTIONS
Descriptor
Study N
Historical
Persistence Rate
A 82,000 62.5%
B 48,812 64.9%
C 17,908 67.9%
D 77,455 74.3%
PROPRIETARY
INSTITUTIONS
Descriptor
Study N
Historical
Persistence Rate
A 48,000 89.7%
B 127,979 83.4%
C 92,000 78.3%
TOTAL 11 787,385
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