Online and Distance Education Commons^™

Online Learning Success: Underlying Constructs Affecting Student Attrition, Sandra Porta-Merida

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

With the advent of the Internet, distance education has achieved a new meaning. Online delivery has become one of the most convenient ways to impart knowledge and education, and it has opened new educational possibilities for some who prefer this method of learning, rather than the traditional classroom setting.

The purpose of this critical analysis of theoretical and empirical literature is to explore the relationships among, online student progress, student characteristics of successful online completers, and to identify areas of future scholarly inquiry. The review examines how social and academic integration are predictors of course performance and course persistence in …