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Literature Review On Student Attrition

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Literature Review Student attrition is a growing issue among community college administrators but there’s been little research into how community colleges’ policies and practices reflect this concern, or how they affect student attrition rates. Research has shown that students in online courses continue to experience higher attrition rates than their counterparts in traditional face-to-face classes despite the advantages offered by web-based technology (Shea & Bidjerano, 2014). In prior studies, researchers have found a multitude of factors contributing to high attrition rates among college students in online classes. A number of studies found that certain environmental/life circumstance factors can affect student attrition rates in online classes (Aragon & Johnson, 2008; Atchley et al., 2013; Harrell & Bower, 2011; Park & Choi, 2009; Wigenbach, & Akers, 2013: Shea and Bidjerano, 2014; Xu and Jaggars, 2013; Xu and Jaggars, 2014). These factors include: ● Not entering college directly after high school; ● Attending college part-time; ● Being a single parent; ● Being financially independent; ● Caring for children at home; ● Working more than 30 hours per week; and, ● Being a first-generation student. A number of studies found that student background and pre-college experiences can affect attrition rates in online classes (Atchley et al., 2013; Gregory & Lampley, 2016; Harrell & Bower, 2011; Kaupp, 2012; Palacios & Wood, 2015; Smart & Saxon, 2015; Stanford-Bowers,

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