Predicting E-learner Success: The Role of Demographics, Academic Background, Selection Type and Student Location

Rapid development of E-learning in Iranian higher education institute is much more salient than pre university level. Nevertheless high dropout rate is common concern among Iranian e-learning systems and others. Because of complexity of the dropout phenomena, this study is trying, to identify predictors of student success in e-learning. The data from 1011 e-learner at the IUST e-learning center were analyzed quantitatively. Demographics, Academic background, selection type and student location as predictor variables were entered in Linear Regression. Finding revealed that demographic variable (gender, Age, marital status) can predict %17.5 variance of student GPA in e-learning, further more Academic background can predict %14 variance. In contrast two variables include selection type and student location can predict 24% variance of student GPA, respectively. The result of independent T test revealed the GPA of student who are selected through centralized entrance exam were significantly less than students who are selected through university entrance exam(p=./…, t=5.597, df=970). At the end, to improve the success rate of e-learner in Iranian higher education some Conclusions and recommendations are presented.