Where Do We Start? Tackling the Issue of Establishing National/International Retention Benchmarks

In an increasingly volatile economy and job market, more and more working adults are relying on online learning to provide them with a flexible way to make themselves more professionally marketable—whether they're seeking new employment or security in their current job. As a result, the online education marketplace is exploding, and the societal impact of online learning is potentially profound. For this reason, it's more important than ever for national/international retention benchmarks to be set for online learning—but where do we even begin? This session will engage online education providers in the first steps of discussion around where to begin in setting national/international benchmarks against which providers in the field can be measured. Among the questions facilitators will discuss are: • What is the definition of retention? How does that definition change to accommodate adult learners studying part time? Should it change? • Literature searches suggest the limited data captured around online learner retention focuses on course completion. Should our mission instead be to track retention at the program level? • What are expectations around degree/nondegree, adult/traditional learners, graduate/undergraduate? • Does it make sense for online programs to compare retention data with traditional face-to-face programs? Or should different standards be set? • Should online retention benchmarks differ by country? The discussion will wrap up with questions around the feasibility of establishing a national/international online learning retention benchmark, and an invitation to partner with Penn State World Campus on the initiative. While the overall goal of the session is to be an open discussion around first steps needed to establish a national benchmark for online learner retention (including the plausibility of such a benchmark), the facilitators would like to frame the discussion around the following structure: I. Overview of Penn State World Campus • Enrollments/Students • Programs Offered • Student Profile II. How We Got Here • Charged by administration to develop a retention model • Research exposed no shared industry benchmarks • Why not tackle the heavy lifting and start discussions? III. Q&A • How do you define online retention at your institution? • Do you use the same definition for full-time and part-time learners? Adult learners? • Are you focusing on course completion vs. program completion? • Are you comparing online retention to face-to-face classroom retention? • What are our expectations? o Graduate vs. Undergraduate o Degrees vs. Certificates o Program Type (degree completion vs. full degree) • Which students should be included when measuring online retention? o Resident instruction students taking online courses vs. full-time online learners o Adult learners vs. traditional-aged learners o Degree seeking vs. nondegree • What should be tracked? o Program vs. course completion o Persistence vs. attrition • What are next steps? o Who would like to partner?