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Adult learner dropout is adults’ withdrawal or stop-out from formal or non-formal educational programs before successful completion. For adult learners, withdrawal often manifests as stop-out or temporary disengagement rather than permanent attrition, reflecting the episodic nature of their participation. Unlike traditional students, adult learners must often balance multiple life responsibilities—employment, caregiving, financial obligations, and community roles—while also pursuing education or training. Their vulnerability to attrition is further exacerbated by these overlapping demands, particularly when educational programs do not accommodate their situational and motivational needs. Adult learner dropout therefore requires a more dynamic understanding of persistence as a continuous negotiation between internal and external demands. Participation in online education has significantly expanded over the past two decades, particularly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as adult learners increasingly engage with digital platforms for work and communication. This exposure has enhanced their digital fluency, transforming their expectations and experiences of online learning. Thus, the underlying factors that influence adult learner dropout have also shifted—moving beyond technological and access-related barriers to instructional quality, engagement design, and relevance issues. In this evolving landscape, adult learner dropout can no longer be regarded as isolated or individual events. It is a systemic phenomenon emerging from dynamic interactions among psychological, pedagogical, contextual, and institutional factors.
- adult learner
- nontraditional student
- dropout
- persistence
- online education
- factors affecting/preventing adult learner dropout
The rapid expansion of online education (OE) has transformed the landscape of adult learning, providing flexible and accessible opportunities across formal or non-formal contexts. With the use of digital technologies, adult learners can now engage in education regardless of geographical or temporal constraint, enabling lifelong learning fitting within complex personal and professional responsibilities [1][2]. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation, and institutions, workplaces, and communities were compelled to adopt online delivery modes at an unprecedented scale [3][4].
This transformation has expanded participation in OE; however, persistent and emerging challenges remain. In spite of improved technological access, dropout rates among adult learners participating in OE continue to exceed those in traditional learning environments [5][6][7]. Recent research has found that, beyond technological access or digital literacy, pedagogical and engagement factors, such as the quality of instructional design, learner–instructor interaction, and the perceived relevance of course content, play a critical role in shaping persistence and attrition in online learning [8][9][10].
Existing dropout frameworks, dating to quite a bit before the pandemic, tend to be unable to account for the complexities of post-pandemic online learning environments. The widespread digitalization of work and education has transformed adult learners’ expectations, technological competencies, and motivational orientations. It has thus become increasingly important to reconceptualize dropout models by integrating instructional, contextual, and psychological dimensions to more accurately explain and prevent attrition in contemporary OE.
Building on this need for reconceptualization, this entry is guided by two central questions: (1) How have models and explanations of adult learner dropout evolved, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape? (2) How can a systemic, multi-level framework conceptualize dropout as an outcome of cross-level interactions rather than an individual deficit?
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/encyclopedia5040214
References
- Merriam, S.B.; Baumgartner, L.M. Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide, 4th ed.; Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2020.
- OECD. Education at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators; OECD Publishing: Paris, France, 2021.
- Bao, W. COVID-19 and online teaching in higher education: A case study of Peking university. Hum. Behav. Emerg. Technol. 2020, 2, 113–115.
- Dhawan, S. Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. J. Educ. Technol. Syst. 2020, 49, 5–22.
- Lee, Y.; Choi, J. A review of online course dropout research: Implications for practice and future research. Educ. Technol. Res. Dev. 2011, 59, 593–618.
- Park, J.; Choi, H.J. Factors influencing adult learners’ decision to drop out or persist in online learning. Educ. Technol. Soc. 2009, 12, 207–217.
- Rahmani, A.M.; Groot, W.; Rahmani, H. Dropout in online higher education: A systematic literature review. Int. J. Educ. Technol. High. Educ. 2024, 21, 19.
- Martin, F.; Xie, K.; Bolliger, D.U. Engaging learners in the emergency transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. J. Res. Technol. Educ. 2022, 54, S1–S13.
- Kahu, E.R.; Nelson, K. Student engagement in the educational interface: Understanding the mechanisms of student success. High. Educ. Res. Dev. 2018, 37, 58–71.
- Hachey, A.C.; Wladis, C.; Conway, K.M. Investigating online versus face-to-face course dropout: Why do students say they are leaving? Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 1122.
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