Adult Learners in Online Higher Education Research Discussion

This week, I utilized the library to search for literature reviews on the topic of adult learners in online higher education to determine what research was already available and to get a summary of what was already known. As McIndoo (2014) states, it is important to determine everything that is around your research without actually touching it, thereby identifying the gap. Dr. Patton (Walden University, 2015) explains that it is important to learn our “intellectual genealogy”, both theoretically and methodologically, so that we know where our research will fit in. As scholars, we have an obligation to know the history of our research area, who the contributors were, and what changes were made over the years so we can make a valid contribution to the literature through our own work.

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In searching for literature reviews on distance learning attrition and adult learners, my first search included the following search terms: distance education or distance learning or online education or online learning AND attrition or retention or dropout or completion or persistence AND adult learners or adult students or non-traditional students or nontraditional students AND literature review or systematic review. This was the same as my initial search, however, I added in the literature review portion. After only finding one article, I searched distance education or distance learning or online education or online learning AND attrition or retention or dropout or completion or persistence AND literature review or systematic review. I also limited the output to studies that were peer-reviewed within the past 5 years. I was able to find several more review articles, including an article that focused on several different categories of barriers faced by students learning online (Kara, Erodogu, Kokoc, & Cagiltay, 2019).

Since I still could not seem to find results, I resorted to Google Scholar with the search: online learning and attrition literature review and limited the output to the past 5 years. I was able to find an article by Shaw, Burrus, and Ferguson, 2016) that was more specific to what I am researching. In all articles, I was able to determine that, although researchers are aware of some of the factors that affect attrition in online programs, and some of the supports that have been helpful, the picture is still largely incomplete, and there was a gap regarding the reasons that students gave for withdrawing from the program. My final search was: distance education or distance learning or online education or online learning AND adult learners or adult students or non-traditional students or nontraditional students AND dropout or drop out or drop-out AND qualitative. This yielded only five results that continued to focus on perceived barriers but did not offer any insight into why students report dropping out.

As a result of this process, I have slightly changed my research question to: how do full-time working adult students describe their reasons for withdrawing from online classes? I believe this to be a true gap in the literature because it is not addressed specifically in any of the literature reviews or articles I have researched thus far. Several of the literature reviews also noted that more research was needed in this area, and the overall picture of adult learners in distance education is incomplete to begin with, probably due to the recency of the widespread appearance of e-learning. This information would be important to the scholarly community because it could help inform programs of early interventions that may be appropriate to improve retention rates.

References

Kara, M., Erdoğdu, F., Kokoç, M., & Cagiltay, K. (2019). Challenges faced by adult learners in online distance education: A literature review. Open Praxis, 11(1), 5-22.

McIndoo, T. (2014, July 8). Defining a gap in the literature: On proving the presence of an absence [Blog post]. Walden University Writing Center. Retrieved from http://waldenwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2014/07/defining-gap-in-literature-on-proving.html

Remenick, L. (2019). Services and support for nontraditional students in higher education: A historical literature review. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 25(1), 113-130.

Shaw, M., Burrus, S., & Ferguson, K. (2016). Factors that influence student attrition in online courses. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 19(3), 211-231.

Walden University Center for Research Quality. (2015, January 23). Literature reviews: Common errors made when conducting a literature review [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiDHOr3NHRA