Retention in Online Courses: Exploring Issues and Solutions—A Literature Review
Open accessAbstract
Despite increasing enrollment percentages from earlier years, online courses continue to show receding student retention rates. To reduce attrition and ensure continual growth in online courses, it is important to continue to review current and updated literature to understand the changing behaviors of online learners and faculty in the 21st century and examine how they fit together as a cohesive educational unit. This article reviews literature to ascertain critical reasons for high attrition rates in online classes, as well as explore solutions to boost retention rates. This will help create a starting point and foundation for a more, in-depth research and analysis of retention issues in online courses. Examining these issues is critical to contemporary learning environments.
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The effect of low expectations and lack of motivation on completion is likely due to the self-directed nature of online courses.
“This is likely due to the self-directed nature of online courses (Bawa, 2016).”
From Using personalized support & school-based study groups to increase teachers’ participation in MOOCs: Findings from two European pilot projects (2021) · cites this paper as Bawa, 2016
Cites
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006) · Educational Psychologist · doi:10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1 · Cited by 6,887 · cited 3× · see citing works
“This could place novice-level learners, who are used to the structured forms of face-to-face courses, in the fluid, ill-structured domains of online environments, leading to demotivation and attrition (Bradford, 2011; Driscoll, 2005; Kirschner et al., 2006; McQuaid, 2009; Paas et al., 2004; Schaarsmith, 2012; Shay & R…”
BackgroundCritical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999) · The Internet and Higher Education · doi:10.1016/s1096-7516(00)00016-6 · Cited by 6,619 · see citing works
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Hsu, H.-C. K., Wang, C. V., & Levesque-Bristol, C. (2019) · Education and Information Technologies · doi:10.1007/s10639-019-09863-w · Cited by 349 · see citing works
Engagement and disengagement in online learning
Bergdahl, N. (2022) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104561 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
A comparison of online and traditional chemistry lecture and lab
Faulconer, E. K., Griffith, J. C., Wood, B. L., Acharyya, S., & Roberts, D. L. (2018) · Chemistry Education Research and Practice · doi:10.1039/c7rp00173h · Cited by 51 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Bawa, P.
- Affiliations
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bawa, Papia
- ORCID
- Bawa, Papia
- Venue
- Sage Open
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-01-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2158-2440 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2269829170
- Cited by
- 486
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 89 · 2020: 61 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 9
- FWCI
- 110.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- SAGE Open (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Evasion and Academic Success Factors
- Keywords
- student retention, online courses, student attrition, online learning, online students, faculty, retention strategies
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