Online Students Demographics and Motivations to Enroll in Class (original) (raw)
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The Relationship between Gender and Academic Success Online
Journal of Educators Online, 2014
Distance learning may pose challenges to students in terms of satisfaction and academic success. This study examined the relationship between the final grade received in a distance learning course and the student characteristic of gender. Examined were differences in online course achievement between male and female students through the lens of identity theory. The sample included 959 education majors at a regional university. Simple main effect tests were conducted after assumption tests for the planned analysis of covariance were not met. Findings indicated that for students with lower overall GPAs, there were differences in online course achievement between male and female education majors. For students with mid-level and higher overall GPAs, no differences existed.
The study site is a unique institution of adult students in the United States of America offering course modality choice to its students which is either face-toface (FTF) or online. Online instruction is offered completely online using Moodle as the online learning environment. The stakeholders at the study site needed research-based findings on the effect of grade point average (GPA) on courses taken either face-to-face or online by undergraduate working adult students in order for institutional reforms to take place on course modalities. The research question that guided this study was: What is the effect of GPA on courses taken either face-to-face or online by undergraduate working adult students? The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of GPA on courses taken either faceto-face or online by undergraduate working adult students. This study was grounded in the self determination theory (SDT) with its subset cognitive evaluation theory (CET). A comparative design of independent groups was used in the investigation of the research question. Archived data were collected on GPA, course modality, and course modality choice. Descriptive statistics and regressions analyses were performed within course modality choice. A significant effect of student choice of learning modality in student achievement either across or within course modalities was found.
Online learning continues to grow at post-secondary institutions across the United States, but many question its efficacy, especially for students most at-risk for failure. This paper engages that issue. It examines recent research on the success of community college students who take online classes and explores similar comparisons using 656,258 student records collected through the Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework. In particular, the research investigated retention rates for students in three delivery mode groups – students taking only onground courses, students taking only online courses, and students taking some courses onground and some courses online at five primarily onground community colleges, five primarily onground four-year universities, and four primarily online institutions. Results revealed that taking some online courses did not result in lower retention rates for students enrolled in primarily onground community colleges participating in the PAR Framework. Moreover, although retention rates were lower for such students taking only online courses than for similar students taking only onground or blending their courses, much of the difference could be explained by extraneous factors. Essentially no differences in retention between delivery mode groups were found for students enrolled in primarily onground four-year universities participating in the PAR Framework, while at participating primarily online institutions, students blending their courses had slightly better odds of being retained than students taking exclusively onground or exclusively online courses. No differences between the latter groups were found at these institutions. Patterns of retention were similar regardless of gender across institutional categories, and were mostly similar regardless of Pell grant status with the exception of fully online students at traditional community colleges. Age, however, did differentially affect delivery mode effects. Older students taking only online courses were retained at higher rates than younger students taking only online courses at both primarily onground community colleges and primarily online institutions. The results suggest that, despite media reports to the contrary, taking online courses is not necessarily harmful to students' chances of being retained, and may provide course-taking opportunities that otherwise might not be available, especially for nontraditional students.
Demographic Influences towards Online Classes: A Correlational Analysis
Asian Review of Social Sciences, 2021
An online teacher needs to give a constant flow of commitment that can serve the progression of unessential data that goes after both time and core interest. The study determines the correlation of demographic profile and its influences on student’s perception towards online classes. The study contrived 313 respondents who are currently enrolled in the College using the snowball inspecting strategy. Frequency and simple percentage, Weighted Mean, Chi-Square Test of Independence, and one-way ANOVA were used to analyzed and interpret the data accumulated. The discoveries uncovered that the understudies slightly perceived online classes in learning diversification, peer interactions, user-friendliness, online course quality, and course design. The investigation also revealed a statistically significant relationship between the respondent's course, family income, and family structure to the level of perception towards online classes. Moreover, there is a statistically significant di...
Online students: Relationships between participation, demographics and academic performance
Electronic journal of e- …, 2012
Using information technology to support teaching and learning is becoming ubiquitous in tertiary education. However, how students participate and perform when a major component of the learning experience is conducted via an online learning environment is still an open question. The objective of this study was to investigate any relationships between the participation, demographics and academic performance of students in an information technology course that was taught wholly online. Through a detailed analysis of tracking data of student participation, which was automatically collected by the online learning environment, it was found that a relationship existed between students' participation in the online learning environment and their performance, as measured by final results in the course. Relationships also existed between gender, nationality, participation and performance. However, there was no relationship between age and performance and participation. These findings suggest that when designing online learning for a diverse population, student demographics should be taken into account to maximise the benefits of the learning experience.
Factors impacting retention of online students
Online learning has continued to grow in recent years. However, retaining students in online courses and programs has posed a challenge. Whether the university is public, private, offers both face-to-face and online programs, or is 100% online, retaining students in online programs can be an issue. This study reflects the widespread desire at a large online for-profit university to improve student retention rates. The goal of the research was to provide further insight into why students may decide to drop out of online programs. Participants consisted of former undergraduate students at the university in the College of Education who dropped out without providing a specific reason for doing so. The study used a non-experimental mixed methods approach collecting data from university databases, an online survey, interviews, and classroom walk-throughs. Data analysis employed techniques such as frequency calculations, a MANOVA, and qualitative content analysis. Results from the MANOVA revealed statistically significant results when examining student Grade Point Average and last course grade. Furthermore, data collected from the online survey, interviews, and classroom walk-throughs revealed common reasons for why students may drop out of online programs.
Journal of Educators Online
While it is well-established that nontraditional students are more likely to take online courses than their traditional-age counterparts, investigations of the learning equivalence between online and campusbased instruction typically fail to consider student age as a mediating factor in the learning experience. To examine learning outcomes as a function of student age (traditional versus nontraditional) in relation to mode of instruction (online versus face-to-face), the current study examined cumulative outbound assessment scores of 1,276 students enrolled in an undergraduate business program. The results revealed that traditional-age students, regardless of whether they take courses on campus or online, performed similarly on the outbound Peregrine assessment; in contrast, there was a marked difference in the performance of nontraditional-age students as those learning online scored significantly higher than those taking classes on campus. Recognizing that nontraditional students who choose to take online courses (as compared to campus-based alternatives) likely do so because of practical factors associated with active work schedules, it is possible that active work experience contributed to increased learning gains. Strategies to allow online programs to utilize this information to better serve their students are discussed.
Retention, Progression and the Taking of Online Courses
Online learning continues to grow at post-secondary institutions across the United States, but many question its efficacy, especially for students most at-risk for failure. This paper engages that issue. It examines recent research on the success of community college students who take online classes and explores similar comparisons using 656,258 student records collected through the Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework. In particular, the research investigated retention rates for students in three delivery mode groups – students taking only onground courses, students taking only online courses, and students taking some courses onground and some courses online at five primarily onground community colleges, five primarily onground four-year universities, and four primarily online institutions. Results revealed that taking some online courses did not result in lower retention rates for students enrolled in primarily onground community colleges participating in the PAR Framework. Moreover, although retention rates were lower for such students taking only online courses than for similar students taking only onground or blending their courses, much of the difference could be explained by extraneous factors. Essentially no differences in retention between delivery mode groups were found for students enrolled in primarily onground four-year universities participating in the PAR Framework, while at participating primarily online institutions, students blending their courses had slightly better odds of being retained than students taking exclusively onground or exclusively online courses. No differences between the latter groups were found at these institutions. Patterns of retention were similar regardless of gender across institutional categories, and were mostly similar regardless of Pell grant status with the exception of fully online students at traditional community colleges. Age, however, did differentally affect delivery mode effects. Older students taking only online courses were retained at higher rates than younger students taking only online courses at both primaily onground community colleges and primarily online institutions. The results suggest that taking courses online is not terribly harmful, especially when considering the access to higher education they provide for an older population in particular.