Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

2-2025

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7780-1176

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Andrew Lumpe

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Dean Campbell

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Donna Smith

Abstract

In this dissertation, the researcher explored the relationship between satisfaction with academic advising and online student retention. Online student retention is a critical issue in the context of increasing competition for students in higher education institutions. The specific problem was that online students have lower retention rates, and the reasons students typically select online degree programs are also the reasons they drop out of their degree programs. The purpose was to identify whether students’ reported satisfaction with their advisors mediated the relationship between the existence of external personal life factors and retention. A quantitative nonexperimental causal-comparative and correlational research design utilized archival institutional data. The sample consisted of online students enrolled at a private nonprofit university in the southwestern United States. Survey responses and institutional retention records were analyzed to assess the correlation between satisfaction and retention outcomes. Key findings include that whereas advisor satisfaction did not correlate with retention in this context, personal life factors negatively correlated with retention. Institutions should consider looking beyond current satisfaction metrics to understand the complexities of student persistence. Recommendations include further exploration of the impact of academic advisors on student success and developing comprehensive support systems that address the diverse challenges faced by online learners. Future researchers should consider qualitative and longitudinal methodologies to further explore the dynamics of support services and retention.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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