Analysis of the Relationship between Cooperative Learning and Student Persistence in Online Education

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between collaborative learning and student persistence in online education. In fact, the purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between synchronous interactive methods of instruction (e.g. Chat) and asynchronous interactive methods (e.g. Discussion Forum and Email) with the student persistence in online courses. The study was descriptive-analytic with survey research methodology. The participants consisted of 744 undergraduate students of electronic education from three Iranian universities. They were selected using a random stratified sampling. The instruments of the study were two researcher-made questionnaires for persistent and non-persistent students with the reliability of 0.79 and 0.82, respectively. The findings of research indicated that in 40% of online courses the main method of interaction between the students and instructors was the same (a combination of chat and email). We also found that there was a positive relationship between the persistence and the students’ attitudes to (p<0.05 and r= 0.744) and cooperation in (p<0.01 and r= 0.863) online courses. As the research literature has confirmed, our findings showed that the instructor’s choice of a specific method of interaction can increase the use of that method by the students. This emphasizes the important role of the instructor –as a facilitator– in the online learning process and the longer student persistence in online courses, in spite of focus on the learners in such courses.