Abstract:

There are five programs at UAGC that share several courses across a spectrum of early childhood education and child development. These programs are AA in Early Childhood Education, BA in Early Childhood Education, BA in Early Childhood Education Administration, BA in Child Development, and BA in Early Childhood Development with Differentiation Instruction. These programs currently serve 2,888 students, and the average one-year persistence rate across programs is approximately 47%.

Several courses in each program have also been identified as having a lower progression rate, meaning that students in these courses are less likely to progress to their next scheduled course. This research project aims to impact retention by implementing two social engagement intervention strategies that provide a supportive learning community for the students in these five programs. The first strategy is to provide a virtual learning community available asynchronously in Canvas which will provide 1) a platform for students to interact with peers and instructors and 2) provide information on upcoming events and professional development resources related to the ECE field. Continued traffic to the learning community site will be encouraged by full time faculty who will add and delete relevant discussions or other elements that may appeal to students.

The second strategy is to hold monthly synchronous meetings to provide an orientation to the five ECE programs and promote social interaction between peers and faculty. The goal of these interventions is to promote the kind of academic growth and momentum which can contribute to long-term retention and ultimately, graduation. Because graduation rates are generally observed over the course of one year, this study will focus on short-term retention data by observing student persistence and progression rates across the five programs on a quarterly basis. Additionally, this study supports the mission of Culture of Care which calls for initiatives and endeavors that empower, support, enrich, and graduate each student.

The main objective of this study is to increase student course completion and progression rates by implementing two social engagement intervention strategies that provide support and motivation through peer-to-peer and peer to faculty engagement.

Researchers hypothesize that, by implementing two different methods of social interactions, course persistence and progression rates will increase and aim to find the answers to the following Research Questions:
- How does the implementation of the asynchronous and synchronous tools affect persistence, course completion, and progression across programs?
- How do completion and progression rates differ from students who utilize the asynchronous learning community versus those who do not?
- Which components of the asynchronous learning community are most utilized by students?
- How do completion and progression rates differ from students who participate in synchronous meetings versus those who do not?

Quantitative data will be collected over the year and aggregated using the OIE Dashboards, Program Enrollments, One Year Persistence by Major rates and the Key Course Metrics Dashboards.

This research will allow the Department of Education and Liberal Arts to understand how a learning community for students could potentially impact retention. If proven successful, these intervention strategies may be reproduced by other programs.

Keywords:

Online Learning, Student Retention, Community, Engagement, Student Engagement, Retention, Learning Community, Early Childhood, Online.