Successful Online Course Retention at Marylhurst University: Constructing a Model for Online Course Retention Using Grounded Theory

For a period of 6 years, the course retention rate for Marylhurst University’s (MU) online courses was 91%, which is within four percentage points of its on-campus course retention rate (Schreck, 2001).This grounded theory, web-based, research study aims to explicate the reasons why MU online students complete courses at high rates and develop this understanding into an online student retention model. A grounded theory approach was used to conduct this study, which is described by Creswell (2002) as, a systematic qualitative procedure used to generate a theory that explains at a broad conceptual level a process an action or interaction about a substantive topic” (p. 439).”