Dr. Phil Ice, vice president of research and development at American Public University System. Phil answered questions about institutional data sources, data analysis, and analytics in higher education. The interview took place with WCET during a conference earlier this year.
Read the complete interview here: Episode Three of Three Big Questions
In the early days of online education, a commonly discussed phenomenon was the low completion rates of students. Some chose to explain the departure of students using characteristics such as lack of social integration and academic integration for students matriculating in online programs as identified by Vincent Tinto and others. As technologies utilized in the classroom improved and subsequently, online teaching techniques, student persistence improved as well, but not close to the levels sustained by some of the best face-to-face programs.