远程开放教育辍学研究:结论与反思

Open and Distance Education Dropout Research:Conclusion and Reflection

高辍学率是远程开放教育不容忽视的问题。本研究依托“远程开放教育辍学研究”项目，使用量化研究、质性研究以及国际比较研究法，深入地考察国内远程开放教育辍学现象，探究这一现象发生的原因及其规律。研究发现:不同学习层次与专业有着不同的辍学率;学习者入学第一年是辍学的高峰;学习者的性别、年龄、所属学习中心行政区域、学习层次、专业、学业成绩是辍学的影响因素，“远程学习者辍学归因解释框架”和“学习者完成学业要素关系图”揭示了辍学发生机理以及完成学业的关键要素及其作用机制;那些具有远程学习技能(信息素养、时间管理能力、师生交互能力)缺乏、错选专业、没有选择合适的课程等级、课业负担过重、不及格科目多、缺乏学习动机、个人意志与成功信念易动摇、经济困难等特征的人群更易辍学;本研究提出了学生保持率公式、复学的关键工作，并讨论了院校自身教学体系对辍学发生的影响。本研究通过与英国开放大学相关成果进行比较，对远程开放教育辍学研究进行了反思与展望。

As an important part of higher education， open and distance education plays a significant role in theprocess of higher education . It thus contributes to the full realization of education equality and social justice. Two es-sential attributes distinguish open and distance education from traditional higher education: free access to learningand open campus. The former means that all qualified individuals who aspire to learn are admitted without examina-tions， regardless of age， occupation or geographic region， whereas the latter means that due to the supports from mod-ern information technologies， open and distance education has incorporated multi-media teaching methods into teach-ing resources design and teaching activities organization to such a degree that learners could study at any time and atany place according to their requirements. The two attributes show that open and distance education has strengths in socialization and capacity， especially low requirements for entrance. However， easy entrance is accompanied by highdropout rate， a widespread problem that open and distance education cannot ignore.In China， open and distance education started in 1999. Now the open and distance education system includes theOpen University of China and 66 network academies of colleges and universities. The enrollment number of open anddistance education in China reached 4. 85 million in 2011. Meanwhile， dropout rate grew increasingly as well. Thehigh dropout rate attracted attention from open and distance education institutes， teachers and researchers. Dropoutcauses damages to both education institutions and learners. Because open and distance education institutions aremainly funded by tuitions， high dropout rate means losing school -running benefits and wasting education invest-ments. For learners who have invested time and money on open and distance education， dropout means that their ef-forts do not get expected returns. Dropout also represents failed learning experience under multiple pressures for learn-ers. Therefore， compared with being contributive to learners' completion of their studies and the achievement of the so-cial goal of education equity， paying more attention to dropout and improving students' retention rate and success ratefit better for the goals and interests of distance educational institutions.Based on ＂ Open and Distance Education Dropout Research＂ Project and school-running experiences of The OpenUniversity of China， this paper conducts an in-depth study on dropout in open and distance education in China. It a-dopts quantitative and qualitative methods to conduct international comparative studies， aiming to answer questions a-bout dropout occurrence rules in open and distance education. The goal of this paper is to answer the following ques-tions: What is the dropout rate in the Open and distance education? What is the temporal regularity of dropout? Whatare the reasons for dropout? What types of students tend to dropout? How to prevent dropout and increase retentionrate? The results show that dropout rates vary among study levels and majors， that the highest dropout rate appears inthe first year， and that learners' gender and age， the location of learning center， learners' study level， major， andacademic records influence dropout. This paper develops the Open and Distance Education Dropout Explanation Frameand Relationship Diagram of Essential Factors for Learners' Achievement to explore dropout occurrence mechanism andidentify key elements that impact learners' completion of education. The paper also finds that learners tend to drop outfor the following reasons: they are weak in distance education learning skills (information literacy， time managementability， and teacher-student interaction); they chose a wrong major or an inappropriate study level; they are overloa-ded; they failed quite a number of courses; they are short of motivation; they are weak in will and determination forsuccess; or they have economy problems. The paper contributes the research on open and distance education by propo-sing a retention rate formula， offering suggestions for going back to school， and exploring the impact of open and dis-tance education teaching system on dropout occurrence. In addition， the paper conducts cross-nation study on openand distance education dropout by comparing related research carried out in China and in U. K. .