FACTORS THAT IMPACT STUDENT RETENTION FOR NEW E-LEARNING PROVIDERS; THE CASE OF PAYAM-E-NOOR UNIVERSITY

E-Learning environments are rapidly expanding as a venue for the development of the education. The implementation of e-learning in traditional universities for the first time creates some challenges and opportunities for them. One of the most important challenging areas after the implementation and delivery of e-learning in traditional universities is the issue of student retention and avoidance from dropout. Thus recognizing factors influencing students’ retention in e-learning courses is a very important necessity in addressing the successful implementation problems. In the case of this study, we conducted open end interviews in a sample of 98 dropouted students to receive a comprehensive and detailed list of factors influencing student retention and dropout in Payam-e-Noor University (PNU) as a university that newly joined to the society of e-learning in Iran. Results shows that overall, three interactive categories of factors contribute in raising dropout rate in such universities. These categories are: student-related factors, university related factors, and society related factors.