The role of demographics in online learning; a decision tree based approach

Author Affiliation

Shakeel Ahmed Khoja is Professor & Chairperson Computer Science Department at Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi

Faculty / School

Faculty of Computer Sciences (FCS)

Department

Department of Computer Science

Was this content written or created while at IBA?

Yes

Document Type

Article

Source Publication

Computers and Education

ISSN

0360-1315

Disciplines

Computer Sciences | Education | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Research has shown online learners’ performance to have a strong association with their demographic characteristics, such as regional belonging, socio-economic standing, education level, age, gender, and disability status. Despite a growing number of studies exploring factors for successful online learning outcomes, most researchers have utilised one or a combination of very few learner characteristics. Moreover, a limited number of studies scrutinised the impact of individual characteristics on learning outcomes as learners progress in a course. The current research aims to explore the dynamic impact of demographic characteristics on academic outcomes in the online learning environment. We investigated and compared the dynamic influence of six demographic characteristics on online learning outcomes using a sample of 8581 UK based learners across four Open University online courses from four different disciplines. We found region, neighborhood poverty level, and prior education respectively, to be strong predictors of overall learning outcomes. However, at a fine-grain level, such influence varied temporally as the course progressed, as well as between different courses. To conclude with, we discussed the implications for institutional support on adopting a tailored approach towards a more personalised student support system.

Indexing Information

HJRS - W Category, Scopus, Web of Science - Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI), Web of Science - Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)

Journal Quality Ranking

Impact Factor: 8.538

Publication Status

Published

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