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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 The still-unpublished paper, entitled Online Course-taking and Student Outcomes in California Community Colleges, was presented on April 18, 2015, at the American Educational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: 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.