Description
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between student characteristics and student retention in a predominantly online college using data from two cohorts of entering students in either 2017-2018 or 2018-2019. Due to the dichotomous nature of the dependent variable indicating retention, this study relied on the point biserial correlation coefficient to determine the strength of the relationship. This study found the demographic variables of gender (p=0.036, rpb = 0.083), prior college experience based on transfer credits (p=0.008, rpb = 0.115), and military affiliation (p=0.022, rpb = 0.091) had statistically significant correlations but low strengths of the relationship to the retained variable in the 2017-2018 cohort. This study also found the academic and financial variables of first term GPA (p=0.000, rpb = 0.432), first term administrative failure (p=0.000, rpb = -0.385), use of federal loans (p=0.000, rpb = 0.151), and use of federal grants (p=0.000, rpb = 0.0.158) demonstrated statistically significant correlations with low to moderate strengths of the relationship to the retained variable in the 2017-2018 cohort with similar results in the 2018-2019 cohort.
Identifier
psu-etd-210
