Cyberpsychology: Psychological Processes That May Affect Dropout Rates among Online IT Security Students

Tom Drange, Joakim Kargaard

2018

Abstract

“Peter” is an online student in an IT Security program, and since the educational institution offers it online and he is a shy person, he thought that he would feel more comfortable at home, not having to face a lot of new people. As the number of online studies increases so does the dropout rate among these students. Research has shown that about 85% of people suffering from social anxiety have difficulties maintaining relationships as well as coping with academic challenges. Social anxiety could be the main contributor for young people to select studying online rather than in a physical classroom and therefore there may be a strong correlation between academic difficulties, social anxiety and the dropout rate for online students. This paper aims to enlighten educational institutions and staff that offers online study programs, by following "Peter" and his challenges, and at the same time discuss the different psychological processes he goes through and try to relate these to the rising dropout rate in higher online education. "Peter" is, of course, a fictive character, but with challenges, the authors experience from students on a frequent basis. The authors base the discussion on own experience and recent research.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Drange T. and Kargaard J. (2018). Cyberpsychology: Psychological Processes That May Affect Dropout Rates among Online IT Security Students.In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-291-2, pages 252-257. DOI: 10.5220/0006776502520257

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu18,
author={Tom Drange and Joakim Kargaard},
title={Cyberpsychology: Psychological Processes That May Affect Dropout Rates among Online IT Security Students},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2018},
pages={252-257},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006776502520257},
isbn={978-989-758-291-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - Cyberpsychology: Psychological Processes That May Affect Dropout Rates among Online IT Security Students
SN - 978-989-758-291-2
AU - Drange T.
AU - Kargaard J.
PY - 2018
SP - 252
EP - 257
DO - 10.5220/0006776502520257