Predictors of Persistence and Success in Online Education

This article will address predictors of success for online students. A survey questionnaire was used to gather data concerning the social and educational levels of readiness of online students at a four-year private university in the Midwestern United States. Of the 4,050 potential participants, 250 (6.23%) responded to the survey. Stepwise regression revealed two models for predicting student performance on two key dependent variables in this study. The first model sought to predict student success based on their self-reported views on whether they felt successful in their online courses. This model revealed 11 survey questions that were significant predictors of students self-reported success scores, b = .382, t (17.737) = 5.399, p < .001. The eleven questions in the model also explained a significant proportion of variance in the self-reported success scores, R2 = .472, F (1, 171) = 29.15, p < .001. The second model focused on the dependent variable of self-reported grade point average (GPA) of students. Of the questions asked in the survey the second model showed eight variables that were statistically significant predictors of student GPA, b = -.397, t (110.066) = -5.767, p < .001. These eight survey questions explain a significant portion of the variance for students’ self-reported grade point averages, R2 = .359, F (1, 178) = 33.261 , p < .001. These finding shed light on the importance of student perspective concerning persistence and success in online education. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research were provided.