The problem with distance education dropout rate. Answers from the Mediated Educational Dialogue

• Main Author: Lorenzo García Aretio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Asociación Iberoamericana de Educación Superior y a Distancia (AIESAD) 2019-01-01
• Series: RIED: Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia
• Subjects: abandono, deserción, persistencia, retención, éxito, educación a distancia, elearning.
• Online Access: http://revistas.uned.es/index.php/ried/article/view/22433
• ISSN: 1138-2783; 1390-3306

The dropout rate, the failure of university students, appears to be a universal problem that concerns teachers, institutions, governments and international organizations. Dropout rates, when related to teaching and learning through digital systems (distance education), are even higher than in face-to-face formats. The goals of this work focus, firstly, on selecting the most outstanding causes that weaken the pedagogical dialogue (mediated educational dialogue) and, consequently, increase dropout rates, and secondly, on pointing out support and guidance actions that could promote quality pedagogical dialogues leading to success, higher satisfaction rates and, consequently, retention, persistence and academic commitment and, thus, reducing the number of student failures. We proceed to the study through a review of the most outstanding scientific literature to detect the main reasons that motivate distance students to drop out from their studies and a number of institutional and teaching actions that can help reduce those failure rates. The focus here is on the proposal of Mediated Educational Dialogue (García Aretio, 2014). When a student's dialogue with the institution, teachers, peers and resources breaks down, a feeling of discouragement, anxiety and frustration appears which, if not addressed, leads to dropout.