Reference:
Park, J., and Choi, H. J. (2009). Factors influencing adult learners' decision to drop out or persist in online learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 12(4), 207-n/a. Retrieved 04/17/2013 from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1287038599/13D7CABD07A2409A66F/1?accountid=28844
Purpose of the study:
This study looked into various theories on why adult online learners fail to continue their education and examined limitations of understanding learner’s behaviors. The purpose was to identify consequential factors that contribute learners to discontinue their education from online classes and eventually investigate what can be done to keep students in online classes by involving sufficient number of participants and including meaningful variables; individual characteristics, external factors, and internal factors that are also differentiated by age, gender, educational background and employment status. They also considered external factors of family support and organizational support, and students own motivations that are sub-categorized by relevance and satisfaction. The study did not look at other internal factors like social and academic integration, and technological issues.
They raised two important questions that follow;
1. Do the dropouts and the persistent learners of online courses show differences in their individual characteristics (i.e., age, gender, and educational background), external factors (i.e., family support and organizational support), and internal factors (i.e., motivation in terms of satisfaction and relevance)?
2. Factors are significant to predict learners’ decision to drop out of online courses?
Participants:
The term” participant” refers to the sample studied. Under this heading, you should include a description of ages, sexes, socio-economic status, school grade, mental level, number, and/or any other demographic characteristics given in the article to describe the particular sample used in the study.
Population and sample
The target population of this study was 147 non-traditional adult learners who enroll in job-related online courses offered by a large Midwestern university. The sample for this study was 147 adult learners who have either completed or dropped out of one of the three online courses offered between fall 2005 and summer 2007 and who agreed to participate in this study. Of the 147 participants, 98 (66.7%) were persistent learners while 49 (33.3%) were dropouts; 105 (71.4%) were female while 42 (28.6%) were male. About half of the participants were between 30 and 39 years old (73 participants, 49.7%) and had some college education (79 participants, 53.7).
Type of Study: Was it a quantitative or a qualitative study? Or were both types of data used? Please explain why you think so.
This study conducted strictly quantitative research that
Hypothesis: What is the hypothesis of the study? If the hypothesis is inferred, you may state it in your own words.
This study aimed to determine whether or not there were differences between dropouts and persistent learners in online courses in their individual characteristics like learners’ age, gender, and educational level, the perceptions of family support and organizational support, and the level of motivation, satisfaction and relevance. This study intend to show that persistent learners did not differ from the dropouts in their individual characteristics. In other words, did not have a significant and direct effect on the dropout decision.

This study also intended to find factors to predict dropouts and persistent learners in online courses to help stakeholders associated with online courses for adult learners find ways to lower the high dropout rates. Although the result does not claim that individual characteristics should be ignored, it can be concluded that individual characteristics have little influence on the decision to drop out and thus can be considered as trivial.
Procedure: Sometimes the procedure is referred to as the “method” and includes a description of control techniques, measuring devices, materials used and ways of proceeding, in attempting to achieve the purpose or purposes of the study.
Family support and organizational support were measured by six-item, five-point Likert scales. Sample items from the family support measure are “My family understands me very well even though I spend little time with them because of online courses” and “My family is proud of me when I learn to improve my job performance.” Sample items from organizational support measure are “My organization is willing to reduce my workload when I need training for my job” and “My supervisor shows interest in my job-related learning.” The measures were developed by the researchers and reviewed by another researcher who has expertise in measurement. These were also pilot tested with former learners who finished online courses offered from the same department. Consequently, Cronbach’s alpha scores for family and organizational support were .78 and .83, respectively. Items used to measure satisfaction and relevance were originally based on Keller’s (1987) Instructional Materials
Motivation Survey (IMMS). This study did not use Keller’s Course Interest Survey (CIS), which is also designed to measure motivation in a specific course because the IMMS has been extensively examined for reliability while the CIS has been used by only a few studies (Gabrielle, 2003). Word choice and the number of items were slightly different from those in the original IMMS because of the need to be more specific for this study. Sample items to measure satisfaction are “It was a pleasure to work on this type of instruction” and “I want to receive this type of instruction again for my job improvement.” Previous studies found that these items had a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.86 (Choi & Johnson, 2005 & 2007). This study found Cronbach’s alpha of these items is .90. Sample items to measure 211 relevance are “The content of this course is relevant to my interest,” “There are explanations and examples of how people use the knowledge,” and “I could relate the content of this course to things that I have seen, done, or thought about in my own life.” Cronbach’s alpha of these items obtained from this study is .87. The answers to the research questions for this study were reached using several statistical tools.

Statistical Tests: Identify the statistical tests used in the article; examples might be chi square (x2), t-test, f-test, Mann-Whitney, etc.
The data to answer the first research question were analyzed by descriptive statistics, chi-square, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Chi-square was used to determine the differences in the individual characteristics between the two groups in this study; that is, dropouts and persistent learners. MANOVA is used to analyze a dependence relationship represented as the differences in a set of dependent measures across a series of groups (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006). In this study it was used to determine the differences between the two groups because this study used multi-dependent variables. Two-way factorial design was employed to control the effect of the course as well when examining group differences in family support, organizational support, and motivation in terms of satisfaction and relevance. Learners may show different perceptions and/or motivation depending on the course for which they register. The second research question was answered by logistic regression analysis. This is a specialized form of regression and is formulated to predict and explain a two-group categorical variable (Hair et al., 2006).

Results or Findings: What actual data was reported by the author of the study? Explain the results -- don't just copy them.
Conclusions: What does the author of the research article believe the results or findings mean?
Critique: In each of the previous sections, you have been reporting what the article said. Now, I want you to think critically about what you've learned, and give me your ownthoughts. Briefly describe your reaction to the article. For example, was it well-organized? Easy or difficult to understand (please explain why)? Did it present diverse perspectives about the topic? Don't limit