Abstract

Hybrid and distance education modes of study are seeing increasing demand and are a growth area for universities (Forte et al, 2016), however retention remains an ongoing issue (Anderson & Rivera-Vargus, 2020; Hachey et al., 2022; Murphy & Stewart, 2017; Rawal & Razak, 2022), (cited in Jones 2023, p12). There is disagreement in the literature regarding a consistent figure on dropout rates (Parker (1999), Carr (2000), Diaz (2002), Allan and Seaman (2013), Radovan (2019)) but it is consistent in being significantly higher than on campus provision.

This research will investigate sense of belonging on distance education courses at the University of Sunderland and its impact on retention. ‘In higher education contexts, “belonging” is often tied to student retention (O’Keeffe, 2013; Thomas, 2012), and it is argued that experiencing a sense of belonging may help students to maintain their engagement with their studies and manage the accompanying challenges and difficulties.’ (Crawford, 2022, p1). There is a lot of research on sense of belonging, however it almost exclusively relates to on campus programmes, not distance education students.

An interpretivist paradigm will be employed in order to give all participants a voice. The research will explore what sense of belonging looks like for distance education students and the extent to which they feel it. Outcomes from this research will include developing a model, based on participant feedback, for student voice, recommendations for understanding sense of belonging in distance education students and analysing its impact on completion rates.