Assessing the effectiveness of targeted forum activities in relation to student retention

• Project Team: Emilie RutledgeRoberto SimonettiJulia Chukwuma
• Theme: Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Project Aim: Enables more students to achieve their study goalsEnhances employability and career progressionImproves and enhance the learning experience of studentsPromotes equality diversity and inclusion including reduction of degree awarding gap
• Status: Live
• Date: April 2023

This project considers student retention rates in relation to forum activity participation. While an array of factors—individual and institutional—impact these rates in Higher Education, creating a strong sense of student community is one organisational level measure that can addressed. Specifically, this study investigates engagement levels in newly introduced forum activities on a distance learning economics module.

Retention has important implications on the income streams and reputations of all Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and considerable literature exists on the factors that influence this. Some are beyond the control of the curriculum content designers such as ‘opportunity cost’ in terms of e.g., time spent away from paid employment and ‘personal issues’ such as family commitments. While others can be influenced by organisational actions, e.g., addressing the quality of ‘the student experience’ and/or quality of course content.

This study conducts empirical analysis of student engagement in newly created forum activities —introduced on an Open University course (‘Economics in Context’) in 2022—to see how this may influence student retention rates on the module compared to the previous academic year. It examines the extent to which factors already established in the literature as impacting retention, such as demographics and academic performance, impact on retention rates for this student cohort, in relation to forum engagement levels. In order to gain a deeper understanding of student perceptions of online forum activities and their role in motivating them to engage in the module and continue their study, we undertake semi-structured interviews with students. Interview questions ascertain student views of the benefits of forum engagement and the potential barriers to this; in particular, the potential links between perceptions of forum participation, peer support, student community interaction and retention.

This study will add to the discourse on the merits of online forums. It will demonstrate the extent to which forums can act as an academic learning tool and a means for creating a sense of community amongst distance learning students. Critically, it will provide evidence-based practical recommendations for HEIs with regard to retention.