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AlterNet reports
Online instruction at community colleges isn't working--yet policymakers are continuing to fund programs to expand online courses at these schools, which primarily serve low-income minority students, and community college administrators are planning to offer more and more of them.
The latest salvo comes from researchers at the University of California-Davis, who found that community college students throughout California were 11 percent less likely to finish and pass a course if they opted to take the online version instead of the traditional face-to-face version of the same class. The still-unpublished paper, entitled Online Course-taking and Student Outcomes in California Community Colleges, was presented on April 18, 2015, at the American Educational Research Association's annual conference in Chicago.
[...]Community colleges [educate 45 percent of the nation's undergraduates] and [that sector] is under fire for low graduation rates.
[...]Despite the flexibility, it appears that many students find it hard to manage their time to complete the lectures and coursework throughout an entire semester.
[...]These are very different results from what researchers are finding for students at four-year colleges.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 06 2015, @06:38PM
I wonder how, or if, they corrected for cause and effect.
Surely the same pressures that drive one out of the classroom and onto online could increase over time and lead to dropping out of the online class? Illness or family member illness or the generic demands of young children or workplace schedule issues or ...
I took several online classes for my degree about a decade ago (the future is here, just unevenly distributed) and the biggest annoyance I had was "mandatory participation points" combined with only a couple things to really talk about and large classes means a mad scramble at 9am Monday to get your shitpost up to get your participation point for the week. So it effectively sabotaged the "decoupled from the clock and calendar" effect. God help some poor bastard trying to add to the conversation thursday night or something after most of the class got their point on Monday morning, there's just not anything to say after awhile. Anyway my point is the dude who thinks he's escaping from Saturday 8-12 or tue/thr 7-9 or whatever is going to get screwed if he ends up in a Monday 9am discussion point kind of class. Some of the instructors kinda sucked. "Describe one of the Codd Normal Forms of database design" means the last 10 or so in a class of 30 are struggling to get discussion points, but something like "List and explain and fix a violation of Codd Normal Form you found at a workplace or school or some institution in your past" could totally work for 10 or 100 students in a section.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday May 06 2015, @06:57PM
That part about the discussions always pissed me off as well -- it's a fucking online class, I don't give a fuck about what anybody other than the professor has to say, and what my hobbies are and what I do in my spare time are none of your fucking business.
It's a fucking online class -- let's not pretend it isn't.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday May 06 2015, @07:28PM
A lot of it is aspirational.
So we're JUST like Yale. Other than not being named Yale, and not having nearly as strict admissions. In fact all you need is money and a pulse. In fact, scrap that, all you need is money. But we do use the same books and curriculum and you can be damn sure we cost about as much as Yale.
Speaking of admissions, you're supposed to go to Yale and become friends / roommates / sex partners with the 75% of the student population who are the spawn of satan and/or billionaire CEOs. So that when you graduate your ole drinkin buddy or FWB can get you a sweet investment banker job at the firm his dad owns.
And seeing as we're just like Yale, other than not being Yale, we expect you to become best buddies with your online classmates to leverage that valuable network effect as demonstrated above. So next time you re-enact a National Lampoon style vacation and drive across the country to see the worlds biggest ball of twine, if you car has a breakdown and needs a new turbo encabulator installed while passing thru a nuclear test site in New Mexico (but I repeat myself) then you can crack open your little black book of contacts from the good ole college days and that guy you made fun of 15 years ago on the online class discussion forum for not being able to tell the difference between ++x and x++ in C has a bro who pumps gas down at the service station who can help you out.
Because, we're just like Yale, or at least we charge that much, which is all that matters, at least to us. Now go out there and make friends, because nobody is closer than an internet friend, just look at Omegle.
The above isn't really my work, its a somewhat dramatized version of a form letter we got WRT online discussion forums many years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @04:31PM
Amusingly I have nothing significant to add to your or Ethanol's discussion points. After about 90 credits of online classes the only thing that continues to be a pain in the ass is mandatory discussions.
(Score: 2) by SecurityGuy on Thursday May 07 2015, @03:42PM
Absolutely, and I expect that's a lot of it. Re: CC's low graduation rates, I went to two and didn't graduate from either. I never intended to graduate from either, I intended to transfer to a 4 year university, and I did graduate from one. I couldn't care less that I don't have an A.A. degree to hang on the wall.
I'm slightly interested in furthering my education, but I have a day job and a real life, so I'd absolutely consider the online option. That day job and real life certainly means I might change my mind and not finish.