Not everyone who sets out on a path toward an online degree sticks with the program. About one in every two Americans who begin college distance learning or traditional college never finish it, according to the Lumina Foundation of Education. Now, some states are working to improve college graduation rates.
Representatives from 17 states have formed an alliance, Complete College America, whereby they plan to work with colleges and universities to help improve graduation rates, according to a March 2010 Associate Press report. High schools in seven states plan to next year allow 10th grade students to take exams that would allow them to earn their diplomas immediately and move on to community college, a report in The New York Times noted. Those who didn’t succeed would better understand college expectations and be able to retest in their junior and senior years, The New York Times article reported. If you need more information about associate degree program, look on the internet.
Full-time jobs, delayed college entry, dependants and alternative high school credentials are among the college completion risk factors identified by the U.S. Department of Education, according to the Pew Research Center. A student’s single parent and financially independent status can also make a difference, the 2002 research center information suggests. African-American and Hispanic undergraduates at the time of the report maintained more of these risk factors than white undergraduates did.
More recently, the National Center for Education Statistics has reported that the percentage of Hispanic students particularly has been increasing. An American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy report noted that 51 percent of Hispanics at the average college or university complete a bachelor’s degree in six years as compared with 59 percent of white students who do, the “Rising to the Challenge” report noted.
Likewise, online college classes tend to appeal to adults, according to the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, and many of these adults might have work and family responsibilities. Online college enrollment for fall 2008 had increased by 17 percent over the previous year, with one-quarter of all college students (4.6 million students) taking at least one online college class, a Sloan Consortium study noted. A 2000 study found that online college drop out rates can be 40 percent or higher at some institutions, according to a report from the United States Distance Learning Association. Reports in USA Today and the Chronicle of Higher Education noted students who enroll in online college programs because they’re too busy for classroom courses might nevertheless have a hard time keeping up with their studies.
Rising to the Challenge recommends that colleges and universities focus on and commit to high levels of retention and completion; that they provide Hispanic students with better consumer information, including information about schools within their academic and financial reach and schools with successful Hispanic student track records; that schools improve financial aid counseling and that students are encouraged to attend more selective schools if they qualify. Rising to the Challenge also suggested tying university aid to school performance standards, including student graduation and labor-market success, rather than on enrollment.
It’s becoming increasingly unusual for students, particularly working adults, to enroll at one institution and remain there for their entire college education, the American Council on Education has reported. Some 60 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients attend more than one institution – in some instances taking classes at two different institutions simultaneously or moving among multiple institutions, with non-enrollment intervals in between, the council noted. Studies related to online college programs have shown a strong relationship between student self-motivation and academic persistence, according to the Distance Learning Association report. Studies and reports have also suggested that successful distance learning programs include those where instructors maintain some form of personal contact with students, let them know what’s required of coursework, respond quickly to their questions and concerns, offer interaction through message boards and similar technology and provide flexible course formats that better enable them to schedule studies between work and family responsibilities. There is an abundance of information about bachelor masters degree on the web.
Colleges, universities and non-profit organizations such as the Lumina Foundation and the National Association of System Heads have, like states, been making strides to improve college graduation rates. One university in Texas has long offered an online bachelor’s degree program that it touts as a degree completion program and that reportedly provides as many as 59 hours of college credit for technical and experiential credit. A community college and a university in Arizona have more recently begun working together to point students toward coursework that’s required for certain degrees, to guarantee these students university admission and to make them eligible for limits on annual tuition increases, according to a March report in the Sierra Vista Herald. A California college is working to add a personal touch to online classes by employing a program that allows professors to deliver lessons and messages to students with Webcam video recordings and to use the service, Skype, for live, video conversations with students, the USA Today article reported.
Meeting the needs of students in multiple life situations, online school classes allow new and returning students the convenience they demand. For careerists, a distance learning masters degree can be undertaken while keeping up with the responsibilities their job demands.
