NAVIGATING THE CHANGING NEEDS OF THE NONTRADITIONAL STUDENT

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NAVIGATING THE CHANGING NEEDS OF THE
NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENT

• Janet Roberson, MBA
• Dr. Rebecca Clark

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INTRODUCTION

• IDEAL Program (Individually Designed Education
  for Adult Learners)
• On campus classes
• Paper based correspondence classes
• Blackboard based classes
• Email classes

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INTRODUCTION (continued)

• Research inspired by a student paper last year
  (Harold Hofer, 2003) that compared the GPAs of
  traditional and non-traditional students. This
  raised questions about what other factors in the
  students lives might impact their grades and
  therefore their retention.
• We decided that we need to examine factors
  affecting retention of our IDEAL population.

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REVIEW of LITERATURE

• More than ½ of the students currently enrolled in
  the US are over the age of 25 and by 2015, the
  number is expected to increase by 13
  (Nontraditional Students Report, May 2004, Vol.
  6, Issue 8).
• Many students (between 25 and 54) see distance
  learning as a requirement for job advancement
  (www.excelsior.edu)

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REVIEW (continued)

• Distance education programs often struggle with
  higher attrition rates among their students
  (Parker, A. 1995).
• Some of the attrition issues include
• Emotional/Personal Problems
• Work/Time Constraints
• Financial Problems
• GPA issues student not sufficiently prepared

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STUDENT RESEARCH

• Original research done in 2003 by IDEAL student,
  Harold Hofer.
• Student used one semester(Spring 2003) of data
  from the Registrars Office to test the
  following five hypothesis

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HYPOTHESES

• 1. Nontraditional students are older than
  traditional students
• 2. Nontraditional students perform better
  academically than traditional students.
• 3. Female students perform better academically
  than male students.
• 4. Majority of students are women.
• 5. Minorities represent the majority of
  nontraditional students and Caucasians represent
  the majority of traditional students.

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METHODOLOGY

• Hofers data upheld his hypothesis but this study
  caused us to think about some issues he didnt
  investigate - particularly the other factors that
  might impact GPA and, more importantly for us,
  impact student retention in the IDEAL program.
• This time instead of going to the database, we
  decided to go to the source the students-- and
  find out what they thought.
• So we decided to do a SURVEY

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METHODOLOGY (continued)

• A questionnaire was constructed that asked IDEAL
  participants about themselves, but also about the
  things the IDEAL program could do to better serve
  their needs. Both closed-ended and open-ended
  questions were used.
• A list of all students enrolled in the IDEAL
  program from the Summer of 2002 through the Fall
  of 2004 was compiled a total of 214 names.

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Response

• On September 9th, surveys were sent via e-mail to
  206 people and snail mail to 8.
• E-mail reminders were sent once a week until
  October 8. Then we mailed surveys to all those
  that had not replied.
• A total of 93 were returned for a response rate
  of about 50 (barely adequate).

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FINDINGS

• In spite of the low response rate, our subjects
  compare favorably with the IDEAL population on
  the following

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SEX
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RACE
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AGE
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MARITAL STATUS

• 30 Single, Never Married
• 52 Married
• 11 Separated
• 8 Divorced
• 0 Widowed

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55 of our students have children

• 47 have children under 6
• 51 have children 6 - 12
• 18 have children 13-15
• 10 have children 16-18
• 14 have children over 18

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WORK

• 83 work outside of home
• Of those who work
• 4 work less than 10 hours per week
• 1 work 10-19 hours per week
• 4 work 20-29 hours per week
• 39 work 30-40 hours per week
• 48 work more than 40 hours per week
• 4 have work hours that vary

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What the students want

• 47 want more financial aid
• 37 want greater variety of majors
• 35 want more on-line classes
• 31 have other, varied requests
• 26 want on-line registration
• 25 want greater flexibility in enrollment
• 23 want more night classes
• 21 want more career counseling

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OTHER FINDINGS

• Why did they enroll?
• How did they find out about the program?
• Impact of marital status on studies?
• Impact of children on studies?
• Self-reported GPA

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CONCLUSION

• Who are our students?
• Meeting their needs
• Online registration, flexible enrollment,
  additional majors, more online classes,
• Financial Aid, night classes, career counseling
• Direction of Future Study