Learning Persistence and Success in Online Courses

There is a need for a better understanding of persistence in online environments from a positive perspective.The appreciative inquiry model challenges the traditional problem based paradigm with an affirmative approach to embrace challenges in a positive light.This study uses an appreciative inquiry approach to grounded theory analysis to study online learning persistence and success.The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was firstly to discover the themes and factors that emerge from an appreciative inquiry of online learner persistence;secondly to identify the meaning of persistence for online students;thirdly to create provocative propositions of the construct of learning persistence and success in online courses;and finaly to generate a theory of learning persistence and success in online courses.Through face-to-face and online interviews,thirty students in five online courses at Central New Mexico Community College participated in the study which led to identifying three categories,eight themes and thirty-six learning persistence and success factors.The study offers and appreciative paradigm of online persistence and online transformational learning processes.