Attrition in Online and Campus Degree Programs

Higher Education: Attrition in Online and Campus Degree Programs
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer122/patterson112.html

While this study is not specifically about any type of LMS, it compares the drop out rates of students who take online courses vs. campus courses. The study was conducted during between the Fall 2002 to Fall 2004 school years in the Master’s of Business Administration and Master’s in Communication Sciences and Disorders at a national research university in the southeastern United States.

The study shows that online students were significantly more likely to drop out than campus students in both programs. One of the most prominent factors in the online drop out rate was the age of the student. Older online students were more likely to drop out and it seems that academic and demographic considerations were not a significant factor. Online MBA students were six times more likely to drop out than campus MBA students and online CSDI students were seven times more likely to drop out than campus CSDI students. Logistic regression analyses showed age and delivery format to have significant unique effects beyond other predictors on dropout in the MBA program overall while age and undergraduate GPA had significant unique effects beyond other predictors on dropout for the CSDI program.

From the Conclusion of the study:
Online program delivery is a viable method of delivery offering unprecedented access to higher education; however the attrition rates in online programs found by this study suggest that attrition in online program formats remains an issue and challenge warranting the attention of educational leaders in program planning and development.

It is interesting to see how age is affecting the effectiveness of LMS. The study does go on to indicate that there may be other factors that led older students to drop out, however it seems (at face value) that the delivery method didn't motivate the students enough to stay in the program. I keep thinking of some of the older teachers at my school who still refuse to check their email regularly and now I wonder if it is simply because it is too foreign to them? I look at myself and think about how although I love video games, I can't seem to get into playing these modern ones. Is it simply because of the old adage "you can't teach an old dog new tricks?"

This study makes me wonder if this will always happen, no matter how good technology or the LMS is: human beings simply get too inflexible as they get older.