Adapting to the 21st century, community colleges are not adding brick and mortar to meet enrollment demands. Instead, they are expanding services through online learning, with at least 61% of all community college students taking online courses today (Pearson, 2011). As online learning is affording alternate pathways to education for students, it is facing difficulty in meeting outcome standards; attrition rates for the past decade have been found to be significantly higher for online courses than face-to-face courses (Carr, 2000; Hachey, Wladis & Conway, 2012a/b; Morris & Finnegan, 2008; Tyler-Smith, 2006). Yet, there is a lack of empirical investigation on community college online attrition, despite the fact that course and institutional management systems today are automatically collecting a wealth of data which are not being utilized but are readily available for study. This article presents a meta-review of one community college’s realization of their underappreciated asset… the use of institutional data to address the dearth of evidence on factors effecting attrition in online learning. At the turn of the 20th century, community colleges arose as a response to social activism and economic change in the U.S (Kasper, 2002). The 1930’s and the great depression focused community colleges on job training programs to combat widespread unemployment. In the 1960’s community colleges emerged as a low-cost degree option that could be used to transition into baccalaureate colleges and universities, offering a gateway to higher education that otherwise would have been denied to many. Seeking to stimulate the workforce and create a more literate society, community colleges have evolved over the last century to provide opportunities for students of lower socio-economic status, minorities and those students not served by traditional four-year colleges (Shannon & Smith, 2006). With the civil rights movement, the growth and importance of community colleges rose astronomically, and by the 1970s, community colleges became a dominant force in the U.S. educational system (Kasper, 2002). Regardless of the era, community colleges have always adapted to societal demands; no other segment of U.S. higher education has been as flexible and responsive. Since the late 1960’s, the community college has been the fastest growing segment of higher education, and this has never been truer now, at the dawning of the 21st century. Virtually every state is reporting enrollment surges at community colleges (Hagedorn, 2010). The American Association for Community Colleges (AACC) reports increases of 16.9% in community college enrollments from 2007 to 2009 (Mullin & Phillippe, 2009). The recent rise in high school graduation rates coincides with a time of diminished job opportunities in the U.S (Fry, 2010). With President Obama’s American Graduate Initiative and an expected five million Americans earning degrees and certificates in the next decade, the growth of community college enrollments is expected to outpace increasing enrollments in all other types of higher education (Kasper, 2002). The accepted belief that higher education leads to increased social capital (Brick, 1963), and President Obama’s identification of community colleges as “one of America’s underappreciated assets” (Obama, 2009), makes it clear that the community colleges are going to play an increasingly larger role in post-secondary education. Today’s community colleges are comprehensive, providing a myriad of opportunities for increasingly diverse student bodies. Community colleges are the major leader in providing vocational preparation and workforce development. There is a growing trend of certificate programs (Kasper, 2002), as older and part-time students who hold full-time jobs seek out community colleges for additional training and to keep up-to-date with work-related technologies. They also serve as a primary provider of academic instruction, with half of all first-time freshmen starting at community colleges (Kasper, 2002; Ruth, Sammons, & Poulin, 2007). Community colleges have seen a rise in enrollments of degree-seeking traditionally underrepresented students: racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants and women (Kasper, 2002; Fry, 2010). Thus, today’s community colleges serve the triple mission of providing remedial education and English as a second language services, occupational certification and licensure and associate degrees which can lead to transfer to senior colleges and universities. Since their inception, the overarching emphasis of community colleges is on providing access: offering open admission, affordable higher education and programs that meet the lifestyle needs of continually evolving populations of students.

This integrated literature review examined factors associated with the ability of students to persist in an online course. Lack of persistence in online education and its' consequence of attrition, is an identified problem within the United States and internationally. Terminology has wavered between persistence and success, where each has been interchangeably used to characterize a student that completes a course and continues to program completion. Separate searchers were conducted in Academic Search Premier, CINAHL Plus, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Education Full Text, Ovid, and the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT). Search terms included persistence, distance education, and online learning. Inclusion criteria included published after 1999, article from a peer-reviewed journal, and article addresses student factors leading to persistence. Exclusion criteria included article not related to factors of persistence, no original data, and article not written in English or not related to online courses. Factors associated with student persistence in an online program include satisfaction with online learning, a sense of belonging to the learning community, motivation, peer, and family support, time management skills, and increased communication with the instructor. Persistence carries the nuance of complexity beyond mere success. Factors unrelated to knowledge have the ability to provide support, thus allowing the student to overcome hardships in completing a course. If persistence factors are not present in sufficient quantity, the student may be at risk of withdrawing from an online course. (Abstract by author)

The OU Malaysia views the use of advance technologies, especially e-learning as important as the University espouses a life-long learning culture with the intention to produce knowledge workers. This paper will showcase how the implementation of e-learning efforts in OU Malaysia through three methodologies: providing basic information, providing multimedia content and conducting online interactions. These efforts are in use to cater the different needs and expectations of the learners. This paper also explores on the various attributes in WebCT that are exploited to create a culture of e-learning. The e-learning design process, the adoption of the constructivist and objectivist approaches and the attributes of motivation are further described in this paper to sustain the instructional design strategies to enhance e-learning among learners at OU Malaysia. (Authors' abstract)

Kepentingan teknologi maklumat dan komunikasi (ICT) kepada negara,
masyarakat dan para pelajar dalam konteks penjanaan i1mu memang tidak dapat
dipertikaikan lagi. Dalam era globalisasi yang sentiasa berkembang pantas tanpa
mengira skala jarak dan sempadan politik, peranan dan penggunaan ICT
menjadi semakin memuncak terutama dalam menjana kemajuan pembangunan
dan pertumbuhan ekonomi sesebuah negara. Sehubungan dengan ini cabaran
mengaplikasi ICT bagi sistem pendidikan secara jarak jauh (PJJ) dalam
menghadapi era globalisasi ini terutama dalam aspek kesedaran, penguasaan
dan perancangan masa depan adalah sesuatu yang kritikal dan maklumat jitu.
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji tahap kesedaran dan pendedahan dalam era
ICT sebagai satu cabaran pendidikan secara jarak jauh dan mengkaji tentang
tahap penggunaan ICT di kalangan pelajar jarak jauh di semua Pusat Wilayah di
Malaysia. Selain itu kajian ini cuba mengenal pasti isu dan masalah yang wujud
daripada pembangunan dan penggunaan ICT di kalangan pelajar jarak jauh dan
akhirnya mengemukakan beberapa cadangan dan pendekatan untuk mengatasi
isu dan masalah yang timbul di kalangan pelajar ini. Kajian yang menggunakan
kaedah soal selidik secara bersemuka dansecara pos menggunakan pelajar
Pusat Pengajian Pendidikan Jarak Jauh (PPPJJ) sebagai sampel kajian.
Beberapa siri lawatan ke beberapa Pusat Wilayah dan temubual dengan Tutor
Residen dan Juruteknik semasa telah dijalankan bagi mema"ntau dan mengkaji
penyediaan prasarana berkaitan ICT di Pusat Wilayah. Hasil kajian merldapati
bahawa kesedaran dan pendedahan pelajar PPPJJ' dalam ICT adalah masih
pada peringkat ~ederhana dan agak perlahan berbanding perkembangan
semasa. Pelbagai usaha dan pendekatan perlu diterapkan agar penggunaan ICT
ini dipertingkatkan selaras dengan hasrat kerajaan agar kadar literasi dalam
komputer meningkat dan setaraf dengan negara maju. Infrastruktur dan
peralatanberkaitan ICT di PPPJJ dan Pusat Wilayah perlu dipertingkatkan agar
matlamat penggunaan dapat dimaksimakan. Suatu mekanisma dan visi serta ( '
misi pembangunan PPPJJ perlu digarap agar dapat menyaingi perubahan dan ~)
keghairahan yang dibawa' oleh ICT. Aplikasi ICT PPPJJper lu seiring dengan
perubahan semasa yang semakin canggih namun perlu dillbahsuai agar tidak
membebankan pelajar PPPJJ di samping menjamin daya saing dan kredibiliti
PPPJJ dalam mengembangkan i1mu melalui sistem yang'amat memerlukan
aplikasi dan perkasaan ICT ini. (Abstract by authors)

Technology has brought tremendous advancements in online education, spurring transformations
in online pedagogical practices. Online learning in the past was passive, using the traditional
teacher-centred approach. However, with the tools available today, it can be active, collaborative,
and meaningful. A well-developed task can impel learners to observe, to reflect, to strategize,
and to plan their own learning. This paper describes an English as a Second Language (ESL)
instructor’s attempt to foster interactive and reflective learning among distance learners at a
public university in Malaysia, working within the framework proposed by Salmon (2004). The
authors found that proper planning and close monitoring of a writing activity that incorporates
interactive and reflective learning helped to raise the students’ awareness of their own learning
process and consequently helped them to be more responsible for their learning. The students
acquired significant cognitive benefits and also valuable practical learning skills through the
online discussions. However, there were challenges in carrying out the writing task to promote
this form of learning, including students’ professional and family commitments and cultural
attitudes as well as communication barriers in the online environment. To overcome these
challenges, the authors recommend the following: ensure tutor guidance, enforce compulsory
participation, address technical problems quickly, commence strategic training prior to the
beginning of a task, and implement team teaching with each instructor taking on certain roles. (Authors' abstract)