Improving Persistence & Retention with Timely Student-Support and Instructional Technologies.

Walter Rodriguez, Ph.D., P.E.

For the last two years, my students and I have explored how we can enhance students' persistence & retention by leveraging real-life student-support & instructional technologies.

In the process, we individually and collectively realized that while software systems & apps may provide opportunities to engage students, deciding to implement software apps for delivering fully-online student-support programs needed further analysis. Reason: Untested learning- and student-support-apps could potentially create institutional havoc if sufficient instructional- and student-support are not provided ubiquitously, in a timely, effective, and efficient way.

Rather than promoting software apps' flexibility and convenience, we explored the drawbacks of low student-persistence and how information systems could assist the process. Suitably, this article presents mobile-app constructs for facilitating student-support and student-mentor-faculty engagement. The findings have been applied to thousands of students/participants in a joint private-industry/government-sponsored, multiyear, career-certification training (not-for-credit) project and later tested in an academic (for-credit) setting. This student-faculty collaboration led to a peer-reviewed paper (Rodriguez, W. et al. 2019) co-authored with undergraduate students Taylor Bass, David Souza, Jessica Lynch, Michael Lystad, and Ashley White while they were still in college. [For your convenience, below are the excerpts from the paper, and we hope you will be able to implement some of the results and report back. For questions, or to request a copy of the paper, please contact the author at walter@coursewell.com.]

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Introduction

Could ubiquitous-learning software applications (or apps) be used to minimize the negative impact of students studying remotely? Could mobile devices (i.e., cellular smartphones) be used to improve students' retention and persistence with reliable online support and wireless communications? Can student-support apps be used to enhance the acquisition of knowledge from anywhere as well as improve student-mentor-instructor engagement?

The research reviewed the most impactful students' retention and persistence issues. And more importantly, it illustrates the online student-support strategies and natively-designed apps (Adobe 2018; Benson et al. 2013; Rodriguez 2015) that were designed and tested during a multiyear government-sponsored project. The project successfully delivered mentor-supported, video-based training to thousands of online students/participants. Besides, the paper shows sample prototypes apps, i.e., designed by students for their peers, in response to their unique experience taking online courses and studying remotely.

We discuss the online student-support strategies implemented while delivering the above non-credit training. Further, it shows the prototype app designs & policies developed to enhance student support and persistence via mobile devices. Also, the article analyzes the impact that learning and student-support apps may have on educational institutions. For instance, how these apps could potentially create institutional havoc if sufficient instructional- and student-support staff are not provided ubiquitously, in a timely, effective, and efficient way.

The paper (Rodriguez, W. et al. 2019) foresees that ubiquitous learning software applications have the potential to transform education accessibility, delivery, and student-support for anyone with a smartphone. Rather than promoting software apps' flexibility and convenience, this study analyzes the drawbacks and challenges that may occur when the institutions do not provide adequate student support. Suitably, the paper also presents mobile-app constructs for facilitating student-support and student-faculty engagement. Although strategies and functional design-requirements are given, the app system-development and implementation are beyond the scope of this paper.

While the research demonstrates how the online support and mentoring concepts were successfully applied for the retention of thousands of participants (i.e., military spouses) registered in a pre-professional, multiyear career-training certification program, it also examines the general problems and challenges that most college students are facing, regardless of delivery modality (online, mobile, hybrid and on-campus). Then, it provides recommendations, solutions, and app design-prototypes (i.e., user-interface, sample menus, mockups) to help minimize the potential impact of studying remotely, i.e., away from the on-campus student support structure, via mobile devices.

Two characteristics are analyzed, namely, student characteristics, and institutional characteristics. Alternative solutions are presented to increase the student retention rate and help students find a balance between work and study. One of the solutions consist of developing a robust and cross-functional mobile-learning student-support application to address the key issues and dimensions of well-being impacting students' persistence in college, particularly, online/mobile students. The research may be used by software developers to design better and more responsive learning and student-support apps.

Background

Research indicates that fully-online students (including community colleges and massive open online courses) have lower graduation and persistence rates than traditional or fully on-campus students. And, not surprisingly, mobile students face the same types of issues as their campus' peers. Nevertheless, the data is extremely complex to analyze, and the issue is still being debated among scholars (Haynie 2015). To understand the complexity of the problem (or challenge) at hand, a study done by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health examined college dropouts as well as graduates on their socioeconomic success and mental health profiles. This information was examined in five dimensions of well-being: (1) socioeconomic success indicators; (2) happiness/satisfaction; (3) mastery; (4) stress, and (5) depression. The results indicated that college students who dropped out of college ranged significantly on a chart of these five dimensions of well-being. There were many different types of groups investigated---including participants: (a) who averaged out on the list; (b) had higher income with less stress; (c) had higher income with high stress; (d) low income and low stress; and so on (Faas et al. 2017). Further, students' well-being is not simply based on their financial situation but also includes subjective well-being---including emotional contentment. Students should be understood as complex beings. Therefore, when assessing dropout rates at universities, it is most important to understand that there is no simple programmatic solution. Nevertheless, technical solutions (i.e., mobile apps, deep-learning), as well as big data and predictive analytics, may help anticipate issues and design ways to address the problems before it's too late (McMurtrie 2018).

Evidence: Reasons for Dropping Out

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the 6-year graduation rate for first time and full-time undergraduate students at a 4-year degree-granting institution in fall 2009 was 59 percent (The Condition of Education 2018). [The six-year completion for fall 2011 was 57% with some underrepresented minorities critically falling from 27% to 18% below that statistic (McMurtrie 2018).] With students dropping out of college, academic administrators and faculty are faced with a question: How can we minimize student dropout rates and maximize student persistence? Colleges are concerned with the high dropout rates, and many schools have discovered ways to increase the retention rate for at-risk students by flagging (identifying) students, providing in-class tutoring, and re-designing curriculum pathways for those students.

Public and private non-profit colleges have quite similar graduation rates, while private for-profit shows that less than thirty percent of men and women graduate through their institution. With this understanding, it's important to analyze how other schools have been able to increase their graduation rate and look at some ways that schools may be able to increase their graduation rate as well.

In 2015, the six-year graduation rates at a regional university fell to 42.9%, from 57% in 2011 (Bland 2016). Even while this finding was fairly consistent with other extended longitudinal retention surveys (Boden 2012; Van Stolk et al, 2007), it caused great disappointment. Therefore, a more detailed investigation of the problem was conducted. The research looked at "figures from five, six-year periods—2005-11, 2006-12, 2007-13, 2008-14, and 2009-15—which showed that on average, about two times as many full-time students dropped out than transferred to another college (Bland 2016). While this statistic is disheartening, a look at this university's graduation rate compared to nationwide schools shows that the problem runs deeper and broader in the USA.

Students drop out for numerous reasons. There are two big reasons why students drop out. The two groups are (1) student characteristics and (2) institutional characteristics. Student and institutional characteristics can lead to students dropping out (Chen 2012). The two categories will be broken down into further detail in the next two sub-sections to see how each impacts a student's decision on dropping out of college.

Student characteristics are a major reason why students drop out of college. These are the reasons that they feel personally and can be the factor of whether to stay or not. A study was done to find the characteristics that cause students to drop out, and it revealed that the problem has persisted for decades, for instance, a "review of twenty-five years of research on college student dropout identified the following variables that are related to drop out: (a) demographic, (b) academic, (c) motivational, (d) personality, (e) college environment, (f) financial, and (g) health" (Mashburn 2001,174). On the academic variable, first, is academics, students may find themselves merely struggling in classes or are not understanding it. Some are unable to handle all the freedom and may be skipping class or not completing their homework and assignments in a timely manner. Instead of putting an effort when they see themselves slipping, most give up, leading them to drop out. That can coincide with motivation. Students' demographic also affects student's retention rates. Students might feel out of place or do not have a lot of students that are like them (i.e., gender or race/ethnicity). And may consider transferring or drop out as they are not getting the social or cultural support. One of the biggest reasons that students drop out is because of financial reasons. Students may find that college has become too expensive and quit because they can no longer afford it. Sometimes, it's as simple as not having money to purchase textbooks. [More and more, this problem is being addressed by merely offering open-source materials.] Further, an increasing number of students have a part-time or even a full-time job and, simply, have difficulties regulating fun-work-study time in order to complete their homework by the deadline, since work might be taking up all of their time. But these are not the only reasons why students drop out (Mashburn 2001; Pantages and Creedon 1978).

Students may also drop out of college because of institution characteristics. Institution characteristics are "institutional demographics, structure, faculty resources, and financial resources" (Chen 2012, 492). Financial reasons are also part of institutional issues.  Adequate institutional funding and resources are a big part of retaining students. If the institution does not have enough resources and funds to provide services to keep the students active and to better themselves, problems arise very quickly. Also, the institution might not be able to afford certain academic programs or majors that students may be interested in, or they change programs too frequently—increasing the number of years to graduate. Further, if students choose a major that is not well-designed to maximize student retention, they may not feel motivated enough to persist in their degree. Another reason is faculty resources. If the faculty does not have the resources they need to help the students, they will easily fall through the cracks. The faculty might have too many students and might be unable to assist all of them. So, they might not be able to see if a student is not doing well or monitor and provide alternative assignments if the student is having difficulties on a subject.  One aspect is that "the dropout risk fluctuates by year, but the highest is in the first year (17.7%)" (Chen 2012, 495). Though the first year is the highest, students can still drop out in the next couple of years. This study looked at first-year institutions; it did find that the dropout was higher for the least selective public universities than those of any other kind (Chen 2012). This fact could be applied to universities where the acceptance rate is high. A pattern that may increase as fewer students pursue college after high school. With the acceptance rate being high, it's possible that some students who did not meet traditional academic standards may get accepted into the school, i.e. high-school prerequisite courses (Woods et al. 2018). Many students get accepted who might not have the adequate academic preparation, such as colleges serving a population where high-schools are not as demanding or are lagging behind in resources. One factor that universities may fail to recognize in a timely manner, is "the responsibility for acculturating and supporting students throughout the educational experience which might be relegated to non-academic personnel" (Stevenson 2007, 141-142). With non-academic staff being in charge of that responsibility, they might not fully understand or deeply analyze the complexity of the issues at hand. The university needs to change its views. Consider this question: With faculty being the most likely point of contact, shouldn't they be more directly involved with student retention and persistence (if they are provided adequate student-support)? Unfortunately, many schools are now delegating this responsibility to non-instructional advisors, rather than instructors.

Low graduation rates are by no means an uncommon occurrence. Schools across the nation are facing the same dilemmas, and all have attempted to implement their own solutions. According to College Factual (2018), one regional university in Florida has a higher first-year retention rate than other universities in the state, but still, it has a 52.5% six-year graduation rate. Why is that? Would it be due to aspirational reasons, where students may register at a lower-tier college and transfer to a higher-ranked college, during the second year? What can be done to retain those first-year students? (DeNicco et al. 2014). Could a virtual learning community, using mobile applications to connect everyone, help improve students' persistence? As more students are engaged with these devices, it's worth exploring ubiquitous-learning apps to engage students. But there are multiple challenges.

Ubiquitous Learning Challenge

"Nearly two-thirds of college students use their smartphones to study, and the global market for mobile learning is projected to grow by 36 percent annually. Colleges are experimenting with ways to engage students in and outside of class through their phones." (Chronicle of Higher Education 2018)

While ubiquitous-learning delivery modalities (Beckmann 2010), such as eLearning and mLearning (i.e., using mobile devices for gaining knowledge, engaging students, and tracking & assessing learning outcomes from anywhere) provide tremendous flexibility and convenience for online learners, if the offering institutions do not provide robust, engaging online student-support, these students may be quickly inclined to abandon or drop these online or mobile courses without seeking help from advisors, faculty, and campus staff support. For instance, a massive number of students, particularly online and mobile working students are taking longer to complete their degrees and, unfortunately, many never graduate for a variety of student and institutional characteristics enumerated earlier (Faas et al. 2017).

Researchers have investigated the effectiveness of ubiquitous (online, mobile learning) environments (Schwartz et al. 2017; Fozdar & Kumar 2017; Pechenkina et al. 2017). And earlier technical research---focusing on the actual development and implementation process of a non-commercial experimental mobile app---were early on impacted by the online student "retention" and "persistence" challenge (Rodriguez et al. 2015). The main issue is not necessarily about innovation or technology or the way apps are designed, as illustrated by this quote:

"The main drivers of innovation in higher education are not simply a function of what is technologically possible; they are—or should be—a function of pedagogically sound and cost–effective strategies that advance our institutional missions in ways that best serve our students, are fair to our faculty, and advance the interests of our communities." (Committee on Institutional Cooperation 2013)

Figure 1 below illustrates the user interface of an experimental (non-commercial) app developed by the first author. During the three-year beta-testing of this mobile learning app, designed for the participants in the aforementioned sponsored career certification training, it was realized that students were being challenged by issues not necessarily related to the technology itself but rather to online (off-campus) support, after traditional business hours.

This non-commercial, research experimentation helped identify the fundamental fault of focusing on technology alone (see above quote) and let to providing increasing levels of student support. The prevalent issue, while beta-testing the app, was the lack of student persistence and the resulting high dropout rates from learners that didn't proactively seek human assistance in a timely manner (i.e., advisors, instructors, and support staff), beyond the lessons, forums and programmatic self-help and video-linked tutorials provided via the experimental app (Figure 1).

Of course, this is not the only experimental app trying this mobile cellular approach. Some institutions are developing software apps to allow students to engage with faculty and their peers. For instance, one app, labeled "Hotseat," lets students ask questions, take polls, and facilitate (backchannel) in-class discussions (Chronicle of Higher Education 2018, pp. 31). Although these apps may help with engagement and student retention, they don't solve the persistence problem by themselves. And there lays the complexity of the problem.

This figure shows the user-interface and interactive features of an enabling non-commercial experimental technology, named "CourseWell." The software was developed by undergraduate students and faculty and consisted of natively-designed apps and systems. It was developed specifically by the first author and his collaborators as an experiment for enhancing ubiquitous forum discussions and student-faculty interaction via mobile devices. [Coursewell.com is an initiative of Florida Gulf Coast University's Institute for Technological Innovation.]

Figure 1. Non-Commercial Experimental mLearning Software App (Rodriguez et al. 2015)

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Analysis and Solutions: Engaging a Community of Mobile Learners

Overall, graduation and retention issues can stem from several different factors. These factors include lack of adequate academic preparation; personal problems; work-study scheduling; and financial challenges, among many other issues. Table 1 offers some sample issues and practical solutions for online, mobile learners, as well as for the student population in general.

Nowadays, most schools use Learning Management Systems (LMS) to support most, if not all, of their course offerings. Even if these courses are taught fully on-campus or in hybrid, blended or flipped (i.e., where students study and engage with the online instructional resources and then attend real-life on-campus sessions to work on individual or, better yet, collaborative activities to deepen the students' understanding of the content).

One online solution could consist in tracking, identifying and implementing more opportunities for students at-risk of dropping out—including proactive online mentoring and tutoring---based on real-time data derived from the LMS and predictive analytics. These LMS systems record and track every single student outcome, quiz, exams, project, and forum discussion. So, faculty can easily identify students that might be struggling in their classes by simply displaying their electronic grade book on the LMS. When they discover anomalies, they can generate an electronic message alerting the student of missing assignments or projects. The first author has used this technique with great results. And, surprisingly, the students in the class have provided evidence that they appreciate the early intervention (within the allowed ethical, privacy, security framework provided by the systems' tools).

Table 1: Issues and Solutions for Preventing Dropouts

Academic Preparation

Financial Resources

Work-Study Balance

Problem

Inadequate preparation for the rigor of college, either due to poor high school education or difficulties adjusting to the college workload.

Students and their families may not be able to afford to pay for tuition and books.

Many students are unable to regulate and balance work, life, fun, and study into their schedules. Students may not possess basic time-management skills or are simply working long hours (part-time or even full-time.)

Solution

Offer online tutoring- mentoring (provided by work-study students or retirees); create and offer personalized, and alternative assignments; require to complete prerequisites before each difficult assignment, and offer online/mobile prep learning opportunities for students that may be identified as at-risk.

Increase financial assistance and initiate micro-financing accessible to students from low-income families or provide mini-scholarships for work-study students.

Provide online/mobile time management tools and just-in-time tutorials. Also, an interactive application can assist students to manage their time more effectively.

Track and intervene, based on timely data about the students' progress, performance and outcomes.

Source: Lystad 2018

Currently, many institutions with low-retention rates do not offer online tutoring and mentoring services for at-risk students, while they might already be providing mentorship programs for athletes and honor students. That is, not all students have access to or are aware of opportunities to have an online mentor. Online tutoring and mentoring can lead to a better feeling of belonging for students. In a study performed by Colvin and Ashman (2010), it was found that peer mentoring was a successful way to make students feel a sense of belonging (Colvin & Ashman, 2010). Peer mentoring was determined to be a motivating factor for students to stay and succeed at a university. In addition, tutoring is an excellent way for students to seek out help from other students who have already taken courses. Having a peer tutor helps students understand topics explained at their level. Both online peer mentoring and tutoring may be delivered cost-free (or minimal cost), as the tutors and mentors might already be compensated with service learning hours, for instance. And more work-study students might be able to participate from anywhere, anytime (even on weekends and evenings).

Whenever possible, university foundations may also help to implement further scholarships and financial assistance for students that are struggling to meet tuition rates. Many schools offer scholarships to students who excel in academics even when those students are less likely to drop out. But students who are struggling academically pose a larger impact on retention and graduation rates. Providing micro-financing tools for tuition payments and textbooks might be developed by partnering with private corporations or non-governmental organizations.

For those students who struggle with academics, the online mentors/tutors previously mentioned could help them submit applications for assistantships. Financial aid is already offered for students who cannot afford college by the university and by the state. Universities should simply make students more aware of the aid that is available and consider partnering with private companies to provide micro-financing when students are unable to qualify for current aid. More importantly, faculty could choose to utilize more open-source content. Rather than requiring expensive textbooks, professors can use online open-source textbooks and instructional materials. This would save students hundreds of dollars per semester and lead to overall improved student persistence and well-being.

TRIO (2018) Student Support Services is a federal outreach program designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds and offers many services including academic and career advising, tutoring, peer coaching, workshops, summer bridge programs, and computer lab to name a few. When students are accepted at a university as their college of choice, they receive an email from TRIO SSS stating that they could apply for the program. To be a part of TRIO SSS and use their service one has to either be a first-generation college student, be considered to have low income or have a disability. TRIO student support services include financial literacy, and financial workshops and some students receive a scholarship. The required advising meetings are personal, and the advisors are all equipped with knowledge of the university and are able to answer any questions. Further, they keep notes of the students on the computers and have access to the students' grades.

Since TRIO SSS is a federally funded program, statistics are gathered often, and a report showing the completion rate for student support service participants seeking bachelor's degrees who were full-time, first-time first-year students at four-year institutions went from 42 percent to 51 percent (Ginder et al. 2015). This increase may not seem significant but TRIO SSS supported 103,691 students at four-year institutions and 101,065 students at two-year institutions, and the fact that these students even through adversity are able to graduate is excellent. With further studies in the program, there should be advancements in continuing to increase the percentage of graduates. Could a similar program be implemented online for all at-risk students?

With adequate funding, a similar program could be implemented online. But the school would have to find an automated way to identify students that fall into the at-risk category (i.e., the danger of potentially dropping out). Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, universities are already using big data and predictive analytics to analyze large amounts of data from former students' records in order to identify those current students, many from low-income families, who seemed most likely to drop out of school. Although not a simple project, this could be implemented at scale by developing a machine-learning/deep-learning algorithm developed for this purpose. Of course, academic counselors might need to be retrained in order to evaluate their students and implement interventions. Proactive counselor meetings should be required every semester so that the students' well-being is evaluated in addition to their curriculum pathway.

Of course, the new system would require personnel changes across the university.   Since each department at the university may be affected by the others throughout the process, clear communication between stakeholders is essential. As shown in Figure 2, whoever makes executive decisions, usually, the President, Provost, or Vice-President for Enrollment Management would have to initiate a restructuring or process re-engineering or develop the new system. Then the appropriate software would need to be developed or procured followed by extensive training. The software would be a large initial outlay of funds. But the cost may be recouped by the resulting increase in the graduation rates since many schools are receiving performance-based funding.

Figure 2. AI System Development Process

As discussed earlier, some systems and online apps (solutions) have been proposed and implemented at various institutions very efficiently and effectively. But, can we develop an app that will able to engage and link a community of learners—integrating students' life, work, and study?

App-Design: Findings and Recommendations

Since 2015, the first author and several undergraduate students have been involved in the development of mobile-learning apps to stimulate student engagement with peers, faculty, mentors, advisors as well as streamlining the student learning process (Rodriguez et al. 2015).  In 2017-2018 initiative, the basic design app requirements included: (1) focus on students' engagement via mobile technology; (2) design simplified User-Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX); (3) provide connective functionality; (4) automated reminders and notifications; (5) quick load times; and (6) user-friendly team-collaboration (Table 2).

When designing the initial experimental mobile app (Figure 1), the researchers decided to implement it on various operating systems (i.e., iOS, Android) as well as provide web access. The experimental apps were available to the project's participants. For ethical/privacy/security considerations, before downloading the app, the participants were prompted with a consent form. The participants could access information; such as assignments' due dates, upcoming tasks, and graded assignments. In future versions, students will also have to provide their consent (i.e., opt-in) to have their contact information uploaded into a database on a computer server. This approach would allow only privately and securely encrypted transactions among students and their faculty/mentors. Further, there will be no "surprise" (or unqualified) data and information extracted aside from what the students would permit the researchers to aggregate.  

Table 2: System Requirements

Data

Functionality

Dev

UI/UX

Displays data pulled from preexisting App, LMS

Easily Accessible, downloadable, quick sign uptime

Quick Load Times/ Page Speed

Sleek and simple design

Needs to retrieve basic information from all students.

Easily to manage notifications or messages

Need to establish an API call with LMS to pull in needed data

Design with the concept of sustainability and reliability

Source: White 2018

Next, the developers would need to utilize and integrate the app with the new version of the Learning Management System (LMS) at the sponsoring institution. Usually, LMS stores all student data; such as, assignments, due dates, upcoming assignments, and hosts an email communication system as well as contains contact information of students and instructors. Ubiquitous-learning apps should be easily navigable and downloadable. The app should have a quick process download time, as well as a quick response time when storing new student information. When the student has notifications or messages, the app should provide different user variations of how to be notified: alarm, text message, email notification, home screen notification, or simple vibration tone. In order to make the data needed easily accessible, the developers would need to set up an Application Program Interface (API) call to pull the data from the LMS. This call would update on a daily basis at midnight EST. This function would continuously update the app with new assignments, instructor communications and information (should it change, and new introductions to discussions.) As learned in the initial development effort, this function would put less stress on the system in times of extreme updates such as the beginning of add/drop week, course registration dates, etc. The development team would need to ensure that the page loading time, page speed time, and integration time is as low as possible to indicate a fast processing system. Further, as in the first version, developers would need to conduct front end-user testing, as well as back-end user-testing. In addition, they would also need to create prototypes and wireframes of the internal and external systems and test different versions using a group of randomly selected students/participants. These designs should focus on the concepts of simplicity, reliability, and sustainability. Developers would need to come up with different color themes, so students have the individuality to truly make the system their "own" app. In addition, students should be able to customize layout functions with drag and drop methods and delete sections should they not find them relevant (July Rapid 2016; Savvy Apps 2018).

Below are some recommended prototypes that would meet the above design recommendations.

Prototype: Software App for Student Time Management

For rapid development, the system starts with a time-management function and progressively increase functionality to address other issues. For instance, later on, developers could utilize advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and adaptive learning software. The application could use AI that learns how long it takes students to complete certain assignments and tasks and use that information to better choose how to schedule the student's day. The LMS system can be synced with the application. So, assignments and other important calendar items can be imported into the calendar of the application. Cross-communication takes the workload off the student and places it entirely on the system.

The application for student time-management should have a sleek, simple design. It should be intuitive for students to understand exactly how it works. There should be functions for the students to see tasks in a calendar form, tasks in a list form, completed tasks, and a connection to the LMS. In addition, students should be able to sort by day, week, and month for different views of tasks to be completed. A recommended prototype design for the application is shown in Figure 3. But there are some commercially available calendars that could be investigated (Kazmucha 2014).

Figure 3: Prototype Design of Application for Student Time Management

Source: Lystad 2018

An application, such as time management, can help students stay organized as well as teach them time-management skills. In addition to features for time management, the application may also connect students with mentors, tutors, and advisors, i.e., in a community of online learners. The app can link students’ right to a page that allows them to schedule an appointment with their advisor or tutor.

For students with financial needs, the application may link straight to the portal financial aid. The financial aid portal can contain the information explained previously in the financial aid section or offer micro-financing options, as discussed earlier. It is essential to make it easy for students to access financial aid if the university wants students to take advantage of it.

Of course, the answer to the persistence problem is not just one single solution. In order to meet its goals in solving the persistence problem, the university should consider which of the other non-technical solutions are feasible and economically viable to implement. Table 3 shows the pros and cons of each sample solution.

Firstly, adding more financial aid for students might be an issue for universities when its already experiencing funding challenges. Even further, financial aid may not necessarily encourage students to try to succeed and graduate in four years. A better approach for financial aid is to encourage and reward students who are academically successful by staying on track and on their selected curriculum pathway. Students that earn high grades should be eligible for scholarships and grants.

Table 3: App Solution: Pros/Cons

Possible Solutions

Pros

Cons

Online, Mobile Mentoring/Tutoring

Free: Build a sense of community or community of online learners that help each other.

Cost: Need to have access to a smartphone, cellular mobile device or computer connected to the Internet, if unable to use university labs.

Financial Aid

Helps students pay

Rewards academic success

Cost to the institution

Does not help all at-risk students

Application

Helps students manage time

Builds career skills

Used by all students

Cost to the university, although it might be developed as a collaborative class project.

Source: Lystad 2018

Aside from tutoring, the time-management application could be a lifesaver for students that have trouble managing themselves. There may be additional costs for institutions to implement a new app, but these costs may be mitigated by assigning development efforts to work-study Computer Science and Computer Information Systems (CIS) students as a class project. A developmental effort, such as this app, falls within the scope of CS/CIS students and could be effectively and efficiently accomplished---not counting the educational experience if coordinated with several software development companies. After implementation, the costs to the university would be minimal, and the benefits are anticipated to be exponential. Students will have fewer obstacles when it comes to completing schoolwork as well as budgeting time for extracurricular activities to benefit retention. Figure 4 shows the system development process for the app.

Figure 4. Life Cycle: Lynch 2018

Ethical, Privacy, and Security Issues with the App

Although the above app solution seems adequate, some critical issues may arise from the system. The first major one is dealing with privacy, security, and ethics. "Computer technologies present ethical problems that cannot, as an objective matter, be adequately resolved by recourse to existing ethical theories" (Himma 2007). With the new system recommendations, the students' privacy might be an issue of concern, particularly, if the advisor or faculty would be able to see the last time they logged in and s/he tries to micromanage the students' life, work, and study. There would have to be a balance between trying to help students and trying to micromanage students if they missed an assignment, which might cause concern among the more independently minded students. It could lead to cases against the school if students feel like they have no privacy when it comes to their school work. Therefore, the institution should create panel discussions with both students and professors to see how they feel about the system and try to work to ease potential tensions---so students do not feel their privacy invaded. Fortunately, apps and systems may be designed to be opt-in or opt-out. And, they can also be designed to be proactive (perhaps, intrusive) or simply lay out passively and let the user takes control of its functionality.

An Integrated Student-Success App

Data is everywhere. Universities collect a great amount of data about students that may be used (within the privacy/security/ethical constraints) to help address students' persistence in college. And, an integrated student-success can be designed to meet the desired goals.

Figures 5 and 6 below provide an example of how an application could "proactively" or "passively" help guide students to seek help if they come across a difficult situation and they need online assistance.  

Figure 5: Student Success Interface         

Figure 6: Student Success – Advisor Interface. 

This mobile student success (Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) will allow students to set appointments and communicate with a support team that may be composed of career advisors, psychologists, and faculty members—in an integrated fashion. In addition, students would be able to access information (tailored specifically for them) to support their curriculum pathway and help them set goals to achieve the desired outcome (i.e., hopefully, timely graduation). The support team would be armed with a robust database that would present them with all the necessary information to guide students to graduate on time and keep them motivated.

Figures 7 and 8 below illustrate some cross-functional capabilities to help the support team. Information such as the student's GPA, the financial aid required until graduation, and the course sequence needed to graduate are all listed together under one platform. This compiled information can help students and the support team take the necessary steps to successfully address any issue they might need to solve and plan an effective success path to graduation.

Figure 7: Student Success - Profile

Source: Souza 2018

The support team would be able to customize the information that they want to analyze. In other words, the support team would be able to write queries to import data from the database to help students understand better the situation and the background information of each student. It's possible that the advisors' roles would be to proactively check if the students are registering and taking the courses required to graduate on time. However, they could also inquire about grades performance, or if they needed financial aid, or if students are happy with their selected major.

In addition, advisors or mentors could possibly ask about the student's well-being---trying to assess stress-levels indirectly or if they are feeling motivated to continue taking classes. Despite the privacy/security issues that may surely arise, these types of questions are important and must be asked. Reason: Maybe some students might feel ashamed to ask for help. In some cultures, complaining about a problem to others might make the people be viewed as complainers or negative people. If advisors, like social workers, would be allowed to ask why students' grades were so low, or if they had noticed disappointment with the class and stress levels, maybe they could better guide students to seek help and perhaps they wouldn't have dropped college.

Although there is lots of help available to college students, the immediate connection might not be readily available at critical times. So, a mobile app may be a more active, interactive and proactive approach to identifying needs and wants. Moreover, if a student needs to take a break from college, they usually have to re-apply to be placed in the college system again. Are advisors checking why a student didn't take any classes for two semesters, and more importantly, asking why students dropped out of college? So, some feedback mechanism needs to be implemented.

The above illustrates the importance of a system that would offer cross-functional capabilities---including the participation of advisors, mentors, and faculty working together to ensure that each student that needs help in getting the attention required in a timely fashion. Theoretically, if implemented well, every function would be just by the click of a button and students can reach out for assistance.

Figure 8 - Student Success Metrics

Figure 9: Student Success – Resources Source: Souza 2018

Figure 9 above, illustrates some of the resources that could be available to students via this application. These resources page could include capabilities; such as the functionality to apply to financial aid, or to access micro-financing resources; the functionality to set appointments with support team members; and the capability to seek more information to improve their overall college performance. In addition, students that work and study could ask for help by reaching out to members of the support team through the application that could provide support via chat, email, or live sessions.

Tested Apps in a Sponsored, Multi-year, Certification-Training Project

Some of the app-designs and all student-service recommendations were tested during a sponsored, multiyear pre-professional career certification project. Table 4 provides the results of this training project conducted at Florida Gulf Coast University with the sponsorship of the US Department of Defense's MyCAA (Military Career Advancement Accounts) scholarship/financial/grant assistance program in partnership with industry and the Institute for Technological Innovation.

The Critical Success Factor (CRF) for the project was the completion rate* (Table 4) attained by the participating military-spouses in the online certification-training offered during the duration of the project at FGCU.

Succinctly, the project's high completion rate (87.6%) was due to the consistent high-level of online support provided (via Internet, chats, e-mail, VoIP, video, and other telecommunication tools) to all participants (i.e., military spouses) in this project/program.

Table 4 – Participants: Completion Rate

Total Participants in the Training

3343

Successfully Completed Program

2930

Completion Rate

87.6%

Attempted Certification Exam

598

Passed Certification Exam

424

Certification Pass Rate

70.9%

 ….

Real-Time and Asynchronous Online Support Services 

Consistent and effective online support was provided to the 3,343 military spouses (Table 4) participating in the MyCAA asynchronous online training program (i.e., on-demand videos and just-in-time assessments) offered during the duration of the MyCAA multiyear project at FGCU. The participants persisted and successfully completed their training because someone cared (an advisor, an instructor) about their success and was willing to give them one more call and one more opportunity.

Although the training completion rate was high (87.6%), the institute was unable to require participants to take the pre-professional certification exam (provided by the third-party national certification agencies) once they successfully completed their training. Therefore, the result was that few military-spouses (approximately 20%) took their pre-professional certification exam.  Even though 3,343 military-spouses took and passed the required quizzes and qualification exams to obtain the Certificate of Completion at the institution. Of those participants that voluntarily took their official pre-professional certification exam, about 71% passed their exam and became certified.  At this point, there is still no official requirement to take the pre-professional certification exam offered by agencies. In addition, due to privacy issues, it's not possible to collect information about employment, after completing the training and exams. Therefore, employment data on MyCAA participants is no available to the investigators (i.e., data cannot be obtained from the funding agency, due to confidentiality issues.)

Participants were strongly encouraged to take advantage of the variety of services offered by the MyCAA Project Support Team (MPST). As detailed below, MPST delivered impactful, professional, and results-driven support services, beyond what is normally provided by other institutions (i.e., online 24-7 vs. the traditional campus 40- to 60- hours per week).

Below are the online student/participant services that were available to each of the 3,343 participants.  Basically, the partners, in coordination with the Project Director, created a series of timed/scheduled outreach points that were designed to notify participants of their progress----keeping them engaged all the time.  If a participant felt out of pace (from where they should have been on the training), the participant would at the very least receive a phone call and an e-mail. And, for those with severe academic deficiencies, they would receive an advisor consultation where a new course schedule was designed and agreed upon based on the needs of the participant.

Table 5 – Recommended Strategies to Support Online Students/Participants

Proactive Strategies:

• New Participant Online Orientation – Private one-on-one phone orientation required for all participants

• Private Student Consultations – Based on need or request, all students had the ability to self-schedule an appointment for a consultation with an advisor, if support or guidance was needed.

• All participant progress was monitored and reported to Participant Services on a DAILY basis.

• Scheduled Outreach – Timed outreach – Participants were contacted at scheduled intervals throughout training regarding their program progress/status.

• Remedial Support – Participants who were identified as "deficient" in progress were provided a phone consultation with an advisor. A revised schedule or custom learning plan was developed based on participant needs.

• In-Activity Monitoring – If no activity for an extended period, an "outreach" by phone/email occurred.

Reactive Strategies:

• On-Demand Toll-Free Phone Support

• On-Demand Email Support

• Certification Exam Registration and Scheduling Assistance

• Registration and delivery of program-specific certification Assessment module

Subject Matter Support Strategies:

• On-Demand Chat with a Live Subject Matter Experts who hold one or more industry degrees and certifications

• One-on-One Tutoring – Based on need, or by participant request

• Assistance navigating the many resources provided to supplement the video instruction

Exam Preparation Support Strategies:

• Detailed exam preparation plan upon completion of their program.

• All participants received Exam Preparation Manuals for all eligible exams.

• Private one-on-one phone consultations (Exam Preparation Session) with a Subject Matter (i.e., expert reviews key objectives, study/exam tips, and to provide additional resources to best prepare students for certification success.)

• A dedicated Exam Registration Specialist helped each student with the pre-registration process, identifying a testing location, and served as a guide during each student's path to exam day.

Technical Support Strategies:  

• Dedicated Tech Support to assist with video troubleshooting, software installation, browser issues, etc.

• Creation/Delivery of custom troubleshooting & FAQ video modules

• Available by phone, email, and chat with remote screen-share support capability

Conclusion and Future Research

As demonstrated by the above career project, ubiquitous mobile learning may positively transform course delivery and completion. But, before deciding to implement mobile courses and programs, institutions would benefit from analyzing mobile learning's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; particularly, its effects on retention and persistence.

As discussed, mobile learning is a relatively new ubiquitous learning approach, so the advantages and disadvantages (or benefits and perils) should be researched further before deciding to utilize this form of learning delivery method. Many faculty and students are aware of the convenience and flexibility of using mobile electronic devices and its popularity is growing. However, the potential pitfalls and challenges are often ignored. Demanding mobile, online courses create both an opportunity and a challenge for remote learners. And it provides tremendous scheduling flexibility for study-work students. But, if the university doesn't have a robust student support infrastructure, mobile online students may be inclined to drop the course without seeking campus support.

As reviewed in this paper, online students are taking longer to complete their degrees and, unfortunately, many never graduate. This research examined the problems students are facing. Two characteristics were analyzed, namely, student characteristics, and institutional characteristics. Alternative app-design solutions were presented to increase the student retention rate and help students find a balance between work and study. One of the solutions consisted of developing robust and cross-functional mobile-learning application prototypes to address the key issues and dimensions of well-being impacting students' persistence in college. The mobile-friendly app prototypes presented have user-friendly pull-down menus to access an interactive assignment calendar--including functionality to set appointments and communicate with advisors, faculty, mentors, and support staff.  In addition, the app prototypes incorporated ways to (1) balance work and social life; (2) display grades and warnings; (3) access micro-financing resources for paying for textbooks and tuition; (4) keep track of pending and completed assignments; and (5) find study groups and mentors, among other functions. Privacy, security, and ethical dilemmas, as well as challenges in funding these free apps, were briefly addressed, in the context of mobile learning.

Despite the challenges, the researchers have concluded that software applications could help improve persistence and retention, mainly based on the high-completion rates attained during the above research-training project duration. Nevertheless, the mobile apps must absolutely be backed by a consistent online student-support system at the palm of the students' hands—including access to online mentors to assist students just-in-time.

Further, the mobile app's institutional policies should be researched and analyzed further. For instance, should the tracking apps be required on students' devices? What are the ethical and legal implications? Should apps be offered independently or integrated within the university LMS environment? In this case, the apps will have to sync with university LMS data, so the students' courses and current information (i.e., grades, due dates, etc.) would be automatically uploaded and updated–including when their assignments are due. Actually, this feature is only one of the few that would require drawing data from the LMS as the rest of the features are more extensive. In any case, the first feature that the app should offer is a Calendar/Scheduler. This function would indicate when assignments are due. A student should also be able to edit it and add their weekly personal work-study activities to the calendar, so their assignments, class schedules, meetings, and other social activities can be found in one handy place. The calendar should have a setting where a student can look at tasks for that day or it could break it down more as it shows hour by hour activities. With the calendar comes the notification functionality. So, if a student opts-in, notifications would be sent to him/her at least one day prior to the due date. From the ethical perspective, the user should have to opt-in (rather than have to opt-out) for notifications. [First Author's Note: Many LMS have a function that allows instructors to send reminders (i.e., when an assignment is due) but it's not automated and not all faculty use it. The first author has used this function very effectively to reduce non-submittals and maximize student timely submittals as well as improve persistence.]

Continuing additional recommendations, when the user ops-in, the app should show the assignments due that day. In addition, the app should incorporate some social features. According to Smith and Bland (2019), amenities can be useful in retention efforts. Therefore, a social-tab functionality would allow clubs to post their meetings when events are happening on campus, or even if someone is looking to watch, say, a sports game with people rooting for the same team. This recommended feature is meant to get the students involved on-campus and to meet friends who have similar interests. This feature could potentially keep a student active and happily engaged which might prevent them from dropping out. Another feature could be a study group function. This could be a virtual facility where someone can post about looking to meet-up with people who are taking the same course, so they can help each other understand the materials.

During app testing, the first researcher learned that students need peer support and if they are able to easily find compatible people to study with, they might be able to reinforce what was learned in the lessons and do better in the course. Another recommended feature could be for obtaining financial aid. In this function, advisors (or those maintaining the app) could post relevant scholarship opportunities or links to apply for scholarships, so students can go to the app tab instead of having to research the university website. This would save students both time and effort. And, in this way, students can focus more on their studies, rather than worry all the time about how to finance their education. The next recommendation is a way to connect to the instructor in real-time or near real-time. This could potentially assist in mediating the effects of the relationships between faculty and students (Lenz 2014). Of course, additional research is needed to assess the effects of this connect-function on both faculty and students. Further functionality: If a student missed an assignment, a query-notification should pop up on the mobile screen. In this way, the professor would be able to know the exact reason why the student missed the deadline. Students should be able to choose from pre-written answers, such as struggling with the concept, having financial problems, mental health problems, work, other, or even rather not say—which the student will answer, and that will be sent to the professor or advisor. The instructor or mentor would be able to know what is happening, so they can reach out to students/participants and try to help them before they consider dropping out. Further, faculty should be able to see when was the last time the student logged in. [Some LMS systems already have that capability.] In this way, faculty would know that if the student has not logged in a while, s/he can try to reach out to students in class or via email. The professor should also get automated notifications if a student missed an assignment, so they can reach out to the student.

In closing, certainly, there is no app or solution that can single-handily improve student persistence and retention. It is neither the fault of the students, nor the faculty, nor administrators or advisors, but rather a culmination of years of unintended academic chaos, as universities and colleges grew without adequate student-support infrastructure and resources. But, if students were to put a higher value on engaging in class; and if universities became more willing to accommodate students' busy schedules by offering more 24-7 mobile online-support (as well as engaging students as a mobile, ubiquitous learning community), student retention and student involvement would probably increase. Furthermore, offering more student-support, tutoring and better supplementary instruction would ensure that students pass courses the first time, saving them time and money. Offering more scholarships and designing engaging apps and systems to help students stay on track with coursework may improve retention and graduation rates as well. Of course, future data will certainly tell if the above approaches are improving outcomes, as universities implement and measure tactics, such as, acceleration (Herrera et al. 2012), adaptive learning (Walkington 2013), pre-freshman prep (Wischusen et al. 2011), mentoring (Lenz 2014), predictive analytics, smart advising, wireless fingerprinting (Talaviya et al. 2013), automated degree-planning, mass personalization, structured guided curriculum pathways, in-class tutors, among many other initiatives (McMurtrie 2018). But, even without all these approaches and technologies, the faculty has a pivotal role to play (Stevenson et al. 2007). And as more faculty conduct timely low-tech interventions (i.e., by simply asking "What happened?" "Why haven't you completed the assignments?"). Succinctly, as more online mentors and instructors provide online-student-support as well as alternative, engaging, relevant assignments and projects, universities may expect improvements in students' persistence, as revealed by the aforementioned multiyear government-sponsored project.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Walter Rodriguez: Professor of Information Systems and Director, Institute for Technological Innovation, ISOM, Lutgert College of Business, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida, USA

Taylor Bass: Undergraduate Student, Lutgert College of Business, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida, USA

David Souza: Undergraduate Student, Lutgert College of Business, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida, USA

Jessica Lynch: Undergraduate Student, Lutgert College of Business, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida, USA

Michael Lystad: Undergraduate Student, Lutgert College of Business, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida, USA

Ashley White: Undergraduate Student, Lutgert College of Business, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida, USA