The purpose of this study is to increase online student course completion and progression using social engagement strategies that provide support and motivation through peer-to-peer and peer-to-faculty engagement. This study aims to promote the kind of online academic momentum which contributes to long-term retention and, ultimately, graduation.
There are five programs at the University of Arizona Global Campus that share several courses across a spectrum of early childhood education and child development. These programs currently serve 2,888 students, and the average one-year persistence rate across programs is approximately 47%. Several courses in each program have also been identified as having a lower progression rate, meaning that students in these courses are less likely to progress to their next scheduled course. This research project aims to impact retention by implementing two social engagement intervention strategies that provide a supportive learning community for the students in these five programs. The first strategy is to provide a virtual learning community available asynchronously in Canvas which will provide 1) a platform for students to interact with peers and instructors and 2) provide information on upcoming live events and professional development resources related to the ECE field. The second strategy is to hold monthly synchronous meetings to provide an orientation to the five ECE programs and promote social interaction between peers and faculty. The goal of these interventions is to promote the kind of academic growth and momentum which can contribute to long-term retention and ultimately, graduation. Because graduation rates are generally observed over the course of one year, this study will focus on short periods of retention data by observing student persistence and progression rates across the five programs on a monthly basis. The research team expects that, by implementing two different methods of social interaction, student persistence and progression rates will increase based on data current rates at the start of the study. Additionally, we expect that there will be an increase in persistence and progression rates for students who utilize the asynchronous/synchronous tools versus students who do not. Preliminary data will be available in early 2023.