A Learning Analytics Approach to Identify Factors Influencing Enrolment in Open and Distance Learning in India
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Abstract
Knowing insights as to why learners from diverse social and demographic profile choose to enroll in distance education can be a useful tool for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Institutions to understand the requirements of their target segment, help in fine-tuning service offerings for attracting potential students and finally retaining them throughout the course duration. Conducted in the Indian context and deploying a learning analytics approach using primary data, this study attempts to identify the dominating factors that can potentially affect the enrollment of students of diverse socio-demographic profile to distance education. The study finds that significant differences in perceptions exist across various demographic and social segments towards various factors influencing enrollment in ODL system such as affordable course fees, nearness of study centre, personal satisfaction etc. The study concludes that depending upon their social and demographic profile, ODL learners are likely to have highly diverse motivations to join distance courses and thus they cannot be considered as a homogenous group.
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