Impact of Retention on Successful completion of Graduation

Impact of Retention on Successful completion of Graduation –
An estimation for US colleges
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of retention rate (RR) on the graduation
rate (GR) of 29 accredited online colleges in the United States. The scholar was interested in
this issue because educational institutions are more accountable to the programmatic results
of legislative organizations and the federal government, including modulation rates for
graduation programs. The study also conducted a common linear regression analysis with a
5% significance level in the empirical method and measured the effect of retention rates on
the percentage of successful completion of graduate education in the United States. RR (%) is
considered to be a statistically significant predictive variable (t = 4.69, p < 0.05) in order to
estimate the GR%.
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Table of Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................2
Purpose.................................................................................................................................................4
Background............................................................................................................................................4
Method..................................................................................................................................................5
Results...................................................................................................................................................5
Discussion..............................................................................................................................................7
Brief Overview...................................................................................................................................7
Strength & Limitations.......................................................................................................................8
Comparison with other studies.........................................................................................................8
Policy Implications.............................................................................................................................8
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................10
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Purpose
The purpose of the researcher is to examine the influence of detention factors on the
graduation rate in 29 colleges in the United States, which were accredited as online colleges
or universities. Based on the retention percentage of students in the colleges, a quantitative
study has been carried out to analyse the results of the graduation percentage of the students.
A simple linear regression analysis was performed to test the impact of the retention rate of
the colleges on the graduation rate of the students.
Research question: To what extent do graduation rates vary by retention rates in the online
education providing colleges of the United States?
Background
One of the biggest problems in higher education is the recent development of online
universities. To give students more opportunities to meet market needs, agencies use online
orientation to a faster level of courses and courses. According to a recent survey, at least one
million students dropped out of attended online courses in 2016 (Blau et al., 2018, p.1).
Online registration increased by 12.9%, which is higher than the rate of increase for higher
education students by 1.2% (Allen, and Seaman, 2010, p.3-8). The accelerated growth of
online education is accompanied by quality issues in terms of results (Johnson et al., 2016,
p.1-50). Programme completion is the criteria for assessing the quality and effectiveness of
the programmes. Studies have shown that teaching is effective in an online environment that
is comparable to the traditional classroom environment (Brady, Holcomb, and Smith, 2010,
p.9), but studies and subjective evidence suggest that the rate of attrition in online courses is
high, often much higher than offline courses (Kizilcec, Piech, and Schneider, 2013, p.170-
179; Hew, 2016, p.320-341; Park and Choi, 2009, p.207-210; Rodriguez, 2012, p.2-5). Older
students are reported to have reduced retention rates compared to traditional aged campus
students, and this has special implication on distance learning programs since these courses
are primarily for adult students.
Economists are interested in this particular issue as the education institutions are more
accountable to the legislative organizations and the federal Government for the programme
outcomes that include a completion rate in graduation programme. To ensure funding,
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