Aim/PurposeThe purpose of this quantitative descriptive study is to provide a preliminary examination of students' retention factors of engagement, communication, and isolation that may be affected by the introduction and use of online communities for dissertation development within an online doctoral program. BackgroundThis research is a continuation of the university's 5-year research initiative to address the high national rate of doctoral attrition by investigating whether private online workspaces provide a virtual platform to increase student interaction, enhance student communication, and reduce student perception of isolation.

Aim/Purpose: Retention of doctoral students, particularly during the dissertation stage, has been a decades-old concern. The study examined the value of dissertation chairs’ use of a cloud-based video technology for coaching doctoral students, and its influence on psychological factors previously linked to retention. The psychological aspects included social presence, research self-efficacy, social isolation, and motivation Background: Prior research identified the importance of addressing psychological factors that lead to student retention and the development of future researchers capable of producing quality research. Methodology: An exploratory case study included a survey of dissertation chairs, interviews of dissertation chairs and doctoral students, and review of documents and artifacts in a university in the southwestern United States. Contribution: The findings revealed several aspects of the video technology that dissertation chairs and their doctoral students identified as valuable from a psychological perspective, and there were several unexpected findings. Findings: Coaching using an emerging video technology positively influenced psychological factors leading to improved research self-efficacy, scholarly writing, efficiency and effectiveness of the academic coaching process, which resulted in student retention. Students identified the relationship established with their dissertation chair while using video technology led to their decision to remain in the doctoral program. Recommendations for Practitioners: Use coaching opportunities to develop research self-efficacy as well as to increase social presence, which will help reduce social isolation and increase student retention. Recommendation for Researchers: Integrate emerging cloud-based video technologies for conducting research to engage multiple researchers at different locations. Impact on Society: This virtual coaching approach can improve the research capabilities and reten-tion of doctoral students in today’s online world during the dissertation phase. Future Research: To validate the relationships found in this study, future research should focus on the quantitative aspects of the psychological factors identified in this study.

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This quantitative exploratory study, a continuation of the university's four year research initiative that addresses the high national rate of doctoral student attrition, investigates whether a private online workspace for doctoral students and their dissertation committee will enhance communication and reduce learner's feelings of isolation during the dissertation phase. Private doctoral workspaces provide a virtual platform for learner and committee collaboration, manuscript review, and milestone planning. The purpose of this study is to offer preliminary feedback to guide in the further development of the virtual workspace. To assess effectiveness of the private doctoral workspace, a seven question online survey was created to address usage, communication, and isolation. Two surveys were distributed to 803 doctoral candidates at a private southwestern university in the United States, resulting in 328 respondents for the first survey, and 190 respondents for the second survey. Doctoral learners completed the survey at the onset of the private doctoral workspace implementation, and again four months later. The results indicate that doctoral learners regularly access their private dissertation workspace, communicate more frequently with their dissertation committee, and have reduced feelings of isolation. These results may provide similar benefits to other academic groups working together on long-term projects in other disciplines.

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