Virtual education in Colombia: explanatory models of dropout

Virtual education has taken hold within the Latin American educational system as a methodology that provides vocational training to people whom, for various reasons, cannot access classroom education. This paper aims to review the literature on the current state of virtual education in Colombia and the factors associated with dropout in Virtual Learning. As findings during the literature search, we encountered that during the period between 2000 and 2012 in Colombia 38,136 students were enrolled in this modality, demonstrating the immense acceptance of these programs and the impact thereof. However, despite the number of enrolled, dropout rates are high. According to the System for Dropout Prevention in Higher Education, in 2013 there were a total of 48,850 students who dropped out of distance education programs, which represents 38.2% attrition and therefore a retention index of 61.8%. These figures suggest the need for studies to determine the factors that lead students to make the decision to desert. In this regard, the Colombian context studies of this phenomenon are in very early stages and most have adopted theoretical models grounded in distance-traditional education. However, some factors that may be associated with dropout in this modality are related to technical aspects and socio-cultural characteristics of students.