Abstracts
Abstract
Online higher education has been a success in part because it is less costly to students and governments than conventional education, so both students and governments receive higher returns on their investment than in conventional higher education. However, many online institutions appear to have considerably lower graduation rates than conventional education—the so-called online education deficit that reduces its advantage. This deficit can be reduced through online education institutions investing money in both their course design strategies and their student support, including teaching. This article focuses on student support and suggests that if support increases student retention, institutions will receive a financial return through increased income. It argues: if that increase in income can then be managed to be greater than the original investment, institutions will make a positive return on the investment—that is, a surplus. That surplus can then be reinvested in further student support and potentially increase student success still further. The article then determines what those returns on investment might be in various scenarios depending on institutional funding arrangements. These determinations produce a series of formulae in which actual financial figures can be substituted to calculate those returns.
Keywords:
- dropout,
- attrition,
- online education deficit,
- graduation rates,
- benefits and costs,
- returns on investment,
- student retention,
- money
Download the article in PDF to read it.
Download
Appendices
Bibliography
- Bawa, P. (2016). Retention in online courses: Exploring issues and solutions—A literature review. SAGE Open, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015621777
- Bozarth, J. (2011, September 6). Nuts and bolts: The 10-minute instructional design degree. https://www.learningguild.com/articles/739/nuts-and-bolts-the-10-minute-instructional-design-degree/
- Bramble, W. J., & Panda, S. (2008). Economics of distance and online learning theory: Practice and research. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203892985
- Brown, R. (2005). Education, education, education—But will government policies produce an “excellent education system”? Higher Education Review, 38(1), 3–31.
- Bynner, J. (2001). The wider benefits of higher education [Report 01/46]. Higher Education Funding Council for England. https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20100303164945/http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2001/01_46.htm
- Case, P. & Elliot, B. (1997) Attrition and retention in distance learning programs, problems strategies, problems and solutions. Open Praxis,1, 30-33.
- Chyung, S.Y. (2001) Systematic and systemic approaches to reducing attrition rates in online higher education, American Journal of Distance Education, 15(3), 36-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923640109527092
- Cohen, P. (2016, August 28). Crackdown on for profit colleges may free students and trap taxpayers. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/business/crackdown-on-for-profit-colleges-may-free-students-and-trap-taxpayers.html
- Daniel, J., Kanwar, A., & Uvalić-Trumbić, S. (2009). Breaking higher education’s iron triangle: Access, cost, and quality. Commonwealth of Learning. http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/1442/2009_DanileKanwarUvalicTrumbic_BreakingIronTriangle_Transcript.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
- Danielle, D.-G. (2015, November 6). Obama administration cracks down on college accreditors. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/06/obama-administration-cracks-down-on-college-accreditors/
- Delnoij, L., Kim, J., Dirkx, J., Janssen, J., & Martens, R. (2020). Predicting and resolving non-completion in higher (online) education—A literature review. Educational Research Review, 29, Article 100313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100313
- Demiray, U., & Sever, S. (2011). Marketing online education programmes: Frameworks for promotion and communication. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-074-7
- Hamann, K., Glazier, R. A., Wilson, B. M., & Pollock, P. H. (2021). Online teaching, student success, and retention in political science courses. European Political Science, 20, 427–439. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-020-00282-x
- Huett, J., Kalinowski, K., Moller, L., & Huett, K. (2008) Improving the motivation and retention of online students through the use of ARCS-based e-mails. American Journal of Distance Education, 22, 159–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923640802224451
- Hulsmann, T. (2004, March 4–6). The two-pronged attack on learner support: Costs and the centrifugal forces of convergence. In U. Bernath & A. Szücs (Eds.), Supporting the learner in distance education and e-learning: Proceedings of the Third EDEN Research Workshop, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany (pp. 498–504). Bibliotheks und Information System der Universität Oldenburg. http://www.eden-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/RW_2004_Oldenburg_Proceedings_ISSN.pdf
- Hunt, S. A., & Boliver, V. (2021). Private providers and market exit in UK higher education. Higher Education, 81, 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00546-x
- Inkelaar, T. & Simpson, O. (2015). Challenging the ‘distance education deficit’ through ‘motivational emails’: Open Learning, 30(2), 152-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2015.1055718
- Lederman, D. (2018, June 19). Online options give adults access, but outcomes lag. Inside Higher Education. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/06/20/online-education-gives-adults-access-student-outcomes-lag#.WypGgexaCY8.twitter
- Muljana, P. S., & Luo, T. (2019). Factors contributing to student retention in online learning and recommended strategies for improvement: A systematic literature review. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 18, 19–57. https://doi.org/10.28945/4182
- OECD. (2020, June 18). Resourcing higher education: Challenges, choices and consequences. https://doi.org/10.1787/735e1f44-en
- Rotar, O. (2022). Online student support: A framework for embedding support interventions into the online learning cycle. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 17, Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41039-021-00178-4
- Rumble, G. (2001, February 28). E-education—Whose benefits, whose costs? [Inaugural lecture]. Oldenburg, Germany. http://www.c3l.uni-oldenburg.de/cde/econ/readings/rumbl01b.pdf
- Rumble, G. (2014). The costs and economics of online education. In O. Zawacki-Richter & T. Anderson (Eds.), Online distance education: Toward a research agenda (pp. 197–216). Athabasca University Press. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781927356623.01
- Simpson, O. (2004). The impact on retention of interventions to support distance learning students, Open Learning 19(1), 79-95. DOI: 10.1080/0268051042000177863
- Simpson, O. (2008). Motivating learners in open and distance learning: Do we need a new theory of Learner Support? Open Learning, 23(3), 159-170. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680510802419979
- Simpson, O. (2012). Supporting students for success in online and distance education. Routledge
- Sorensen, C., & Donovan, J. (2017). An examination of factors that impact the retention of online students at a for-profit university. Online Learning, 21(3), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v21i3.935
- Twyford, K. (2007) Student retention in distance education using on-line communication. University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Student_retention_in_distance_education.html?id=k9gaNAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y
- UK Department for Education. (2022, July 1). How our new advertising guidance will improve outcomes for prospective university students. The Education Hub. https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/07/01/how-our-new-advertising-guidance-will-improve-outcomes-for-prospective-university-students/
- UK Office for Students (UKOfS). (2020, November 17). Consultation on regulating quality and standards in higher education. Consultation on regulating quality and standards in higher education - Office for Students
- UK Office for Students (UKOfS). (2022, July 26). A new approach to regulating student outcomes. https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/student-outcomes-and-teaching-excellence-consultations/student-outcomes/
- Visser, L. (1998) The Development of Motivational Communication in Distance Education Support (Corpus ID: 143151204)[Doctoral dissertation, University of Twente]. Semantic Scholar. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-development-of-motivational-communication-in-Visser/421a198afed6c876812cee3c633f3978dad07c72