Academic and Social Integration in Cyberspace: Students and E-Mail

Conceptual models related to the increasingly important issue of student retention have emerged in the past 15 years, and campuses have employed them to provide programs and services designed to enhance student success in college. Two such models have been widely cited in the literature on higher education. The first Essentially, Astin postulates that involvement can be measured by the amount of physical and psychological energy students exert in any given educational endeavor. The model further asserts that involvement can be measured both quantitatively (e.g., the number of hours spent studying for a class) and qualitatively (e.g., how much of that time is spent reading versus contemplating material). The greater the energy expended, the greater the degree of involvement. The greater the degree of involvement, the more likely the student is to persist and succeed in college.