Student retention is a very important area that all instructors need to be aware of if we cannot keep our students engaged and interested in the course we are teaching then they may tend to drop out of classes and that is not a good thing for the students or the school. Student retention is what lets us keep teaching.

I agree that student retention is very important in finding areas to keep our students engaged. It is particularly challenging in these technological times where the average attention span is diminishing. I like the idea of starting a new course with a startling idea for students to ponder. Find ways to speak their language. Have an interactive thread discussion like this one that they can form ideas and build off each other to support the topics being learned.