"Life Factors" Emerges Consistently as a Key Determinant of Student Online Success

As discussed in a previous post, Life Factors is one of the attributes measured by SmarterMeasure, the assessment tool that evaluates students' levels of readiness for online learning. Life Factors evaluates situations in a student's life that may or may not be within his or her control. Such conditions include a student's ability to devote sufficient time to academic work; a student's access to a dedicated site that is conducive for study and learning; the reason or rationale for which a student is pursuing higher education; a student's access to sufficient resources that include stable finances, sound personal health, and support for educational pursuits among family members and from an employer; and demonstration of past ability to maintain academic commitments.  

Intuitively, one understands that students with challenging life factors will likely face many difficulties within the educational context and that most of these difficulties lie beyond the realm of academics itself. Even if a student is intellectually prepared to engage in college-level learning and has strong motivational factors, he or she may confront stresses from personal, family, and financial circumstances that prohibit effective academic progress.

Initial evaluations of Fall 2010 data from SmarterMeasure support much of our intuitive understanding: across the board in terms of demographic factors, students who score highest in the Life Factors section tend to have a higher likelihood of succeeding in their online learning. These students have the time, place, resources, and past academic success to support their current educational efforts, even at a distance.

For instance, if one examines the chart above, one sees that 19% of traditionally-aged students who score well in Life Factors also succeed in their online course(s). In contrast, only 9% of traditionally-aged students who confront challenging personal issues are able to succeed online. The bulk of our students fall into a "Questionable" category: they are balancing some positive life issues with some that are negative. Such students, nearly 36% of those who are traditionally-aged, are able to succeed in online learning. Institutionally, we are challenged to identify the root elements that tip the balance favorably for such students. 

One of our questions has to be what non-academic support services do we--or can we--provide that would enable such students who balance both positive and negative life factors to ultimately succeed academically. Our support may be the provision of a dependable place of study: a site that is free of distractions, that provides access to necessary technologies, and that accommodates students' varying schedules. It may be the provision of flexibility and access itself in terms of the generally-accommodating nature of online learning.

Our initial results from SmarterMeasure identify the demographics of students who have effective and supportive Life Factors that enable them to succeed in stronger numbers in their online courses. Such students tend to fall within the traditionally-aged college student (18-24); they tend to be women; they are students who have some prior online academic experiences; and they self-identify their ethnicity as Caucasian. With such data to guide our efforts, we are better positioned to develop further student support structures to assist those who work to balance their academic goals with personal and familial issues that impact their their progress.

--Ghazala Hashmi

QEP Coordinator