Student retention is an important issue for all university policy makers due to the potential negative impact on the image of the university and the career path of the dropouts. Although this issue has been thoroughly studied by many institutional researchers using parametric techniques, such as regression analysis and logit modeling, this article attempts to bring in a new perspective by exploring the issue with the use of three data mining techniques, namely, classification trees, multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), and neural networks. Data mining procedures identify transferred hours, residency, and ethnicity as crucial factors to retention. Carrying transferred hours into the university implies that the students have taken college level classes somewhere else, suggesting that they are more academically prepared for university study than those who have no transferred hours. Although residency was found to be a crucial predictor to retention, one should not go too far as to interpret this finding that retention is affected by proximity to the university location. Instead, this is a typical example of Simpson's Paradox. The geographical information system analysis indicates that non-residents from the east coast tend to be more persistent in enrollment than their west coast schoolmates.
While multimedia-based training is prevalent in education, previous studies do not reach consensus on its application. This discrepancy might be due to the fact that multimedia programs implemented in various training programs are very diverse. A multimedia program might include graphics, animation, video, audio, and interactive exercises. This exploratory study is not a bold attempt to answer the question regarding all features of multimedia; rather, the focus has been narrowed down to the audio component of multimedia.It was found that even if audio neither hinders nor helps multimedia learning, a tutorial with audio can hold users' interest and help develop positive perceptions of the presented material, but it is suggested that instructional designers should consider placing rich media content in the later section of the learning sequence, especially when audio can only be used sporadically.
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