CREDIT HOUR ENROLLMENT: DOES THE AMOUNT IMPACT COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADULT LEARNER PERSISTENCE?

Abstract

State and national initiatives focused on meeting student completion goals have been established for higher education to help produce a stronger workforce and meet economic labor market demands. Some of these initiatives have been centered around improving adult learner enrollment and completion. More adult learners are returning to higher education and often seek advice from an academic advisor regarding suggestions for educational planning, including credit hour recommendations. However, research encompassing credit hour recommendations is often concentrated on those 18-24-year-old students who can enroll full-time. This study aimed to investigate if credit hour enrollment impacts student persistence among adult learners enrolled in a two-year community college. Utilizing retrospective data provided by a two-year community college in Tennessee, chi-square analyses were performed to analyze of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and credit hour variables on student persistence. Although the results of the Cramer’s V test indicated a weak association, all the variables resulted in being statistically significant indicators of persistence. Moreover, the weak association values indicate that there may be many additional factors related to student persistence, retention, and graduation that exist in addition to the variables used in this study. Future research involving credit hour enrollment and adult learner persistence should include research designs with a qualitative approach or questionnaire that could help better understand credit hour enrollment decisions related to additional responsibilities that adult learners often encompass. Additionally, dedicated research on adult learners should be continued so that higher education can better support them and their efforts in persistence and completion.