It happens frequently that a percentage of the students in distance education courses and programs dropout half way on their completion. This is usually of no one cause, but of a accumulation and mixture of causes.
I. Factors Affect Student Success and Failure
Factors affect student success and failure might come from two potential sources. They might either come from individual accomplishment or from environment influence. The factors in the category of individual accomplishment may include personal education background, learned ability, personal experience, personality and personal interests. And factors in the category of environment influence may include a person's academic concern, his work/creer concern, family concern, technology/facility concern, time and cost concern and social/personal relationship concern.
Coggins (1989) found the greater the lengh of time since completing a formal education course, the less likely the student will be to complete a new course. It is found that the more formal education a person has, the more likely he or she is to complete a distance education course. The ability to work independently of the instructor is the ability an distance learner have to have. Researchers (Bernt and Bugbee, 1994) found that students who passed their courses differed significantly in the strategies of testwiseness, concentration and time management skills. It has been suggested (Moore, 1975) that individuals who are more field independent are better suited to distance learning than people who are less field independent.
A variety of extracurricular concerns might also give light to the completion issue of a distance learner. The concerns include the features of the course, job stability, family responsibilities, facility access, financial difficulties, time conflicts, or personal social relationship etc.
II. Billing's Model
A number of researches have developed formal models for prediction student completion. The figure 8.1 (Moore & Kearsley, 1996. P162)) illustrates Billing's Model for completion of Correspondence Course ( Billings, 1989).
From the model, we can see that Billings first classified four categories of variables, they are namely background variables, organization variables, outcome/attitudinal variables and environmental variables. Further, he identified those factors under each category of variable. As it showed in the figure (Moore and Kearsley, 1996. P162) , SAT scores and college preparation are contributes to background variables. Under category of organization variables, factors listed are GPA, class level, experience with correspondence courses, and classmate support. Then the examples for outcome/attitudinal variables are practical value, educational goals, loyalty, satisfaction with course/lessons, difficulty with course, feedback and isolation. At last, environmental variables include employment, employer support, family responsibilities, family support, and proximity to instructor.
In his model, Billings uses links to show the relationships among the variables. He indicated that background variables could be an direct and independent cause to the completion of a student's course. Or it can be additive factor together with any other factors in organization variables, outcome variables and environmental variables to form an indirect influence on course completion. Similarly, organization variables, outcome variables, and environmental variables can either be a causal factor which influences cause completion directly and independently, or they could form a correlational effort to influence course completion as a whole. Date of First Lesion Submission and Intent to Complete Course are tow factors Billings identified them independently. They are the functions of the correlational effect of organizational, outcome and environmental variables, forming a cause-effect relationship with Course Completion.
From the analysis, we see that all the factors in the model could have a certain degree of direct and independent influence on the Course Completion. So, all of them can be seen as a predictor of the probable completion of a distance course to some extent. But as the Intent to Complete and Early Submission are factors that are the functions of the correlational effort of all the other variables, they could be treated as the most effective indicators of the completion of a distance learning course.
III. Three most Important Factors
To me, the three most important factors that are helping me to successfully complete this course are 1) the knowledge that future courses and information dissemination are going to be through distance learning; 2) I am personally very enthusiastic about achieving distance learning skills to improve my teaching techniques; and 3) my desire to make myself more employable in my career.
First, the future of distance learning is obvious as the general public increases computer usage and seeks courses with the computer. Working people and particularly professional people have very limited discretionary time available to them. The time needs for the individual with family and employment leaves little time left for formal academic exercises. However, every individual has time allocations throughout the day, evening or weekends to pursue special interests. The challenge then is to make certain that the distance learning program has value to the client. The client must allocate discretionary time as well as formal work place functional periods. The burdens of employment can be softened by improved technical skills, conversation emendation, and advancement over competitive and collateral colleagues.
Secondly, my personal enthusiasm for distance learning has accumulated from my experiences in China and observing the higher value of continuing education in the United States. The formal secondary and post secondary schools in China are for the most part excellent and contemporary with the developed industrial countries. However, continuing education beyond the collegiate degree requirements is lagging in China. The current lack of transportation and communication infrastructure in China does not encourage formal extended education courses. The computerized learning opportunities are increasing now with each new purchase of a modern computer. Chinese people are competitive, diligent and patient. They know that as they privatize state owned business, only the best will survive. My desire is to become a leader in this specialty and assist Chinese business and education people in furthering their business opportunities and improving their competitive advantages.
Third, I know that I must become employed in a complex globalized world. My employment prospectus must have specialized and needed skills attractive to the professional workforce. China is making rapid changes in private industry, educational systems and social development. A Chinese professional with American distance learning expertness is desired by a wide array of occupations. People with unique skills experience and academic backgrounds have definite employment competition advantages. The starting salary will be higher than less skilled competitors, the job security will improve and my contribution to overall Chinese society will be greater.
IV. Conclusion
Many factors will came into play in determining student completion of a distance learning course. With greater autonomy, student characteristics such as active listening and the ability to work independently in the absence of a live instructor become critical for success. Also, attention should be paid to motivate students intent of study in the curse. As a result to find individual's motivation in distance learning become a challenge for instructors to reduce the dropout rate of distance education.
1. Moore, M.G. & Kearsley, G. (1996) Distance Education: A systems View. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
2. Sherry,L. (1996). Issues in Distance Learning. International Journal of Educational Telecommunication, 1(4), 337-365.
3. Coggins, C. ( 1989) Prefereed learning styles and their impact on complition of external degree programs. In M.G. Moore & G.C. Clark, (Eds.), Readings in Distance Learning and Instruction, 2. University Park, PA: ACSDE.
4. Moore, M.G. (1975) Cognitive style and telemathic (distance) teaching. ICCE Newsletter 5(4), 3-10