Assignment:
Background
One of the biggest challenges in the higher education sector has been the recent growth of online universities. The Online Education Database is an independent organisation whose mission is to build a comprehensive list of accredited online colleges. The Excel spreadsheet (OnlineEdu.xlsx) contains data on the retention rate (%) and the graduation rate (%) for 29 online colleges in the United States.
Instructions
Conduct a simple linear regression analysis to examine the association between the ‘retention rate' (the independent variable) and the ‘graduation rate' (the dependent variable). Using the Excel data file, prepare a report using the following structure.
Purpose
In this section, the purpose of the report need to be clearly and concisely stated.
Background
In this section, write an overview of the association between retention and graduation. Why would economists be interested in this particular issue?
Method
In this section, provide a brief overview of the data and empirical approach used to examine the association between retention and graduation.
Results
a) Provide a descriptive analysis of the two variables (e.g., mean standard deviation, minimum and maximum).
b) Develop a scatter diagram with retention rate as the independent variable. What does the scatter diagram indicate about the relationship between the two variables?
c) Estimate a regression equation that can be used to predict the graduation rate (%) given the retention rate (%).
d) State the estimated regression equation and interpret the meaning of the slope coefficient.
e) Is there a statistically significant association between graduation rate (%) and retention rate (%). Explain.
f) Did the regression equation provide a good fit? Explain.
g) Suppose you were the president of South University. After reviewing the results, would you have any concerns about the performance of your university compared to other online universities?.
h) Suppose you were the president of the University of Phoenix. After reviewing the results, would you have any concerns about the performance of your university compared to other online universities?
Discussion
In this section, provide a brief overview of the key results. What are the key strengths and limitations of this analysis? (e.g., data, method, etc.). How do the results from this analysis compare with other studies? (e.g., are the findings consistent?). Do these findings have clear policy implications?
Recommendations
In this section, you should present three well-considered recommendations.