STUDENT PROGRESS IN DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSES - A REPLICATION STUDY

A crucial test of the veracity of any theoretical model is replicabili ty. This article describes a replication study of a model of student p ersistence in distance education. The model had its origins in the inf luential work of Tinto (1975), as reformulated by Kember (1989) for th e special circumstances of distance education students. The essence of the model is that social and academic integration of students are vie wed as intervening variables between initial background characteristic s and outcome measures (i.e. academic achievement and persistence). A quantitative test of the model, using a Distance Education Student Pro gress (DESP) inventory developed for this purpose, has been reported ( Kember, Murphy, Siaw, & Yuen, 1991). To further test the model, especi ally in terms of its replicability, minor modifications were made to t he DESP inventory in the light of the original findings, and it was ap plied to a different set of institutions, courses and students. The se cond study has resulted in a similar path model for student progress. Comparison of the significant paths between the academic and social in tegration variables and the outcome variables shows a notable degree o f similarity between the models. Reliability values for the majority o f the sub-scales identified in the original study have improved in the replication. Both studies have revealed the importance of social and academic integration to student progress in distance education. As suc h, the studies provide a useful framework for further study of what mo tivates distance education students to persist in their studies.