Katherine M. Conway

Is the Second Time the Charm? Investigating Trends in Online Re-Enrollment, Retention and Success.

Online education is becoming an increasingly important component of higher education. The Sloan Foundation 2010 Survey of Online Learning reports that more than 30% of all students take at least one online course during their college career. Because of this, attention is now turning to the quality of student outcomes that this instructional method provides. However, there is a huge gap in empirical investigations devoted to the link between technology and performance indicators such as grade performance, re-enrollment and course completion (Nora & Plazas Snyder, 2008). This study found that prior online course experience is strongly correlated with future online course success. In fact, knowing a student’s prior online course success explains 13.2% of the variation in retention and 24.8% of the variation in online success in our sample, a large effect size. Students who have not successfully completed any previous online courses have very low success and retention rates, and students who have successfully completed all prior online courses have fairly high success and retention rates. Therefore, this study suggests that additional support services need to be provided to previously unsuccessful online learners, while students who succeed online should be encouraged to enroll in additional online courses in order to increase retention and success rates in online learning.

Exploring Persistence of Immigrant and Native Students in an Urban Community College

This study explored persistence for four groups of traditional-age (18–24) first-year students in an urban community college: native students, native students with immigrant parents, U.S. high-schooled immigrant students, and foreign high-schooled immigrant students. Earning a high school diploma and pre-college preparation (either high school grade point average or basic skills proficiency) contributed positively to persistence for all four student groups. Foreign high-schooled immigrant students needed the most remediation but persisted more strongly and attained higher grades, suggesting the value of support for access to higher education for immigrants.

Educational Aspirations in an Urban Community College: Differences Between Immigrant and Native Student Groups

This study explored the educational aspirations of immigrant and native students in an urban community college. Using Burton Clark’s cooling-out theory as a framework, the study looked at choices students make when applying to college and the extent to which students later change their aspirations. Immigrant students who were educated in United States high schools were more likely than other student groups to aspire to a 4-year degree and seek admission to a senior college rather than a community college. Logistic regression analysis revealed that most students did not change their majors over six semesters, although among those who did, students were more likely to be cooled out (i.e., they lowered their aspirations as indicated by a change from a transfer to a terminal program) than to shift from a terminal program to a transfer program.

Balancing Retention and Access in Online Courses: Restricting Enrollment … is it Worth the Cost?

Open access is central to the Community College mission. For this reason, any restriction in online enrollments should not be undertaken lightly. This study uses institutional data gathered from a large, urban community college to examine a policy aimed at increasing student retention in online courses by restricting those eligible to enroll based on Grade Point Average (GPA) The data, counter to expectations, show that the policy did not significantly impact attrition rates. Further analysis reveals that a high GPA cut-off (3.0) is needed to significantly affect attrition rates; however, this would severely restrict those eligible to enroll. The data indicate that students in the middle GPA range (2.0–3.5) have the highest proportional difference in attrition between online and face-to-face courses. The results suggest that rather than focusing on GPA restrictions, community colleges may be better served by addressing research and interventions targeted toward other factors to increase student retention in online learning.

Do prior online course outcomes provide more information than G.P.A. alone in predicting subsequent online course grades and retention? An observational study at an urban community college

In this study, prior online course outcomes and pre-course enrollment G.P.A. were used as predictors of subsequent online course outcomes, and the interaction between these two factors was assessed in order to determine the extent to which students with similar G.P.A.s but with different prior online course outcomes may differ in their likelihood of successfully completing a subsequent online course. This study used a sample of 962 students who took an online course at a large urban community college from 2004 to 2010. Results indicate that prior online course experience is a very significant predictor of successful completion of subsequent online courses, even more so than G.P.A. For students with no prior online course experience, G.P.A. was a good predictor of future online course outcomes; but for students with previous online course experience prior online course outcomes was a more significant predictor of future online course grades and retention than G.P.A. We explore how prior online outcomes and GPA predict future online outcomes.Prior online course outcomes predict future online outcomes better than GPA.For a first-time online student, success online was strongly correlated with GPA.Students with prior online success, regardless of GPA, continued to succeed online.Unsuccessful online students continued to struggle online, regardless of GPA.

The Representation of Minority, Female, and Non-Traditional STEM Majors in the Online Environment at Community Colleges A Nationally Representative Study

Using data from more than 2,000 community college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors in the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, this research investigates how ethnicity, gender, non-traditional student risk factors, academic preparation, socio-economic status, and English-as-second-language/citizenship status relate to online course enrollment patterns. Even after controlling for other factors, Blacks and Hispanics (Black and Hispanic men, in particular) were significantly underrepresented in online courses, women were significantly overrepresented, and students with non-traditional student risk factors (delayed enrollment, no high school diploma, part-time enrollment, financially independent, have dependents, single-parent status, and working full-time) were significantly more likely to enroll online. However, although ethnicity, gender, and non-traditional factors were all important predictors for both 2- and 4-year STEM majors, at community colleges, ethnicity and gender were more important predictors of online enrollment than non-traditional characteristics, which is the opposite pattern observed at 4-year colleges.

The Online STEM Classroom--Who Succeeds? An Exploration of the Impact of Ethnicity, Gender, and Non-Traditional Student Characteristics in the Community College Context.

Objective: This study analyzes how ethnicity, gender, and non-traditional student characteristics relate to differential online versus face-to-face outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses at community colleges. Method: This study used a sample of 3,600 students in online and face-to-face courses matched by course, instructor, and semester from a large urban community college in the Northeast. Outcomes were measured using rates of successful course completion (with a “C−” or higher). Multilevel logistic regression and propensity score matching were utilized to control for unobserved heterogeneity between courses and for differences in student characteristics. Results: With respect to successful course completion, older students did significantly better online, and women did significantly worse (although no worse than men) online, than would be expected based on their outcomes in comparable face-to-face courses. There was no significant interaction between the online medium and ethnicity, suggesting that though Black and Hispanic students may do worse on average in STEM courses than their White and Asian peers both online and face-to-face, this gap was not increased by the online environment. Contributions: These findings suggest that both women and younger students in STEM courses may need extra support in the online environment. Future research is needed (a) to explore whether factors such as stereotype threat or child care responsibilities affect the outcomes of women in online STEM courses, and (b) to determine which characteristics (e.g., motivation, self-directed learning skills) of older students may make them particularly well suited to the online environment.

An investigation of course-level factors as predictors of online STEM course outcomes

Abstract This study analyzed students who took STEM courses online or face-to-face at a large urban community college in the Northeastern U.S. to determine which course-level characteristics most strongly predicted higher rates of dropout or D/F grades in online STEM courses than would be expected in comparable face-to-face courses. While career and elective STEM courses had significantly higher success rates face-to-face than liberal arts and major requirement STEM courses respectively, career STEM courses had significantly higher success rates online than would be expected, while elective STEM courses had significantly lower success rates online than would be expected given the face-to-face results. Once propensity score matching was used to generate a matched subsample which was balanced on a number of student characteristics, differences in course outcomes by course characteristics were no longer significant. This suggests that while certain types of STEM courses can be identified as higher or lower risk in the online environment, this appears not to be because of the courses themselves, but rather because of the particular characteristics of the students who choose to take these courses online. Findings suggests that one potential intervention for improving online STEM course outcomes could be to target students in specific courses which are at higher risk in the online environment; this may allow institutions to leverage interventions by focusing them on the STEM courses at greatest risk of lower online success rates, where the students who are at highest risk of online dropout seem to be concentrated.

Which STEM majors enroll in online courses, and why should we care? The impact of ethnicity, gender, and non-traditional student characteristics

Using data from roughly 27,800 undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) majors in the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), this research examines the relationship between race/ethnicity, gender and non-traditional student characteristics and online course enrollment. Hispanic and Black STEM majors were significantly less likely, and female STEM majors significantly more likely, to take online courses even when academic preparation, socioeconomic status (SES), citizenship and English-as-second-language (ESL) status were controlled. Furthermore, non-traditional student characteristics strongly increased the likelihood of enrolling in an online course, more so than any other characteristic, with online enrollment probability increasing steeply as the number of non-traditional factors increased. The impact of non-traditional factors on online enrollment was significantly stronger for STEM than non-STEM majors. Hispanic and Black STEM majors were significantly less likely to enroll online.Female STEM majors were significantly more likely to enroll online.STEM majors with non-traditional characteristics were more likely to enroll online.Non-traditional characteristics predict online enrollment more than other factors.Non-traditional characteristics were more significant for STEM than non-STEM majors.

Using course-level factors as predictors of online course outcomes: a multi-level analysis at a US urban community college

Research has documented lower retention rates in online versus face-to-face courses. However, little research has focused on the impact of course-level characteristics (e.g. elective versus distributional versus major requirements; difficulty level; STEM status) on online course outcomes. Yet, focusing interventions at the course level versus the student level may be a more economical approach to reducing online attrition. This study used multi-level modeling, and controlled for the effects of both instructor-level and student characteristics, to measure the relationship of course-level characteristics with successful completion of online and face-to-face courses. Elective courses, and to a lesser extent distributional course requirements, were significantly more likely to have a larger gap in successful course completion rates online versus face-to-face, when compared with major course requirements. Upper level courses had better course completion rates overall, but a larger gap in online versus face-to-face course outcomes than lower level courses.