ONLINE COURSES FOR HIGH SCHOOL CHILDREN: ENROLLMENTS MATCHED BY ESCALATING ATTRITION RATES

Abstract

Increased work at home opportunities, work place inaccessibility or difficulty in reaching distant work stations and the recent lock down have all converged to make online courses with its attendant spinoffs, an attractive alternative. In the age of knowledge revolution, the plethora of online courses on practically every conceivable subject seems to have spawned a deep seated hunger to expand horizons of knowledge and sharpen their skillsets so as to attain an unchallenged edge over their peers. This paper reviews the various online courses available in the market, the reasons why they take up these courses and also explores some of the reasons for the high rate of drop-offs and drop out of these courses. Three objectives have been set forth, and three hypothesis have been formulated which emerged from the literature review. A semi-structured questionnaire was created and tested both validity as well as reliability. Primary data obtained from the questionnaire was analysed using a combination of different tools of Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Both the null and alternative hypothesis were tested using the same package to arrive at certain cogent conclusions, summarised in the results and discussions section