A Correlational Study on Interactive Technology Use and Student Persistence In eLearning Classes at an Online Universit

The increase in enrollments in online courses in higher education have led to a corresponding decrease in student persistence. Educators in an effort to increase student persistence have included interactive technologies in some of their courses. However, there was no empirical evidence on whether the use of interactive technology in on online course could have any influence on student persistence and student engagement. This quantitative study was conducted to determine whether the use of interactive technology in the curriculum could influence student persistence rates. Student archival data collected for two terms from a specific school at an online university was used as the sample. A Technology Acceptance Model questionnaire was sent to faculty to measure the use or non-use of interactive technology in the courses. Pearson's correlation was used to determine the relationship between the variables, while a One-Way ANOVA was used to test for significance. The results revealed a moderately positive relationship between student persistence rates and student engagement, a negative relationship between Interactive Technology Use and student engagement, a negative relationship between Interactive Technology use and student persistence, and no statistical significance in the persistence rates of students in courses that used interactive technology and courses that did not use interactive technology. The findings suggest the possibility that too much interactive technology in the online classroom could decease student satisfaction, student engagement, and student persistence. Future research could empirically test whether the amount and type of interactive technology used in the course has any influence on student persistence.