Ten Factors that Determine Online Student Success at Community Colleges

July 27, 2010

By: Christopher Hill in Distance Learning Administration

Community colleges are especially prone to problems with student completion of courses and retention of the students to graduation. To assist these institutions in addressing problems of persistence among online students, Robert Knipe, dean of learning technologies at Genesee Community College, undertook a study with area colleagues to learn what factors are most critical in predicting success, with an eye to understanding which factors are in the college’s control and which may predict a student at risk for failing to persist.

Persistence is a key issue for community colleges because they tend to be driven by FTEs. These institutions are typically open admission, and maintaining a certain level of FTE determines the school’s funding for the next year.

To better understand online course persistence, Knipe contacted colleagues at area community colleges. “All [were] seeing about a 70 percent on-time completion rate, down from 80 percent,” he says. However, most research done at that point on online student persistence focused on programs at the baccalaureate level. So, Knipe constructed a “Top Ten” list based on his research that helps community colleges understand when students are most at risk for not completing an online course.

Knipe’s Top Ten Persistence Factors
#10: Learning Style: For a student to be most successful in an online course, he or she must have a learning style that is compatible with the demands of the course. This requires a certain ability to study independently; it also requires a match between the visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning qualities of the course and the style of the student. There are several online assessments available which students can use to understand their own learning styles.

#9: Previous Success with College Work: As any academic advisor will attest, there is a degree of uncertainty with a new student (or a student new to the institution). Students who have demonstrated that they can handle college-level work are more likely to be successful studying online.

#8: First Time Distance Learning Student: Likewise, a student who has never studied online has no track record demonstrating their ability to handle these classes. The first time distance learning student is something of an unknown.

#7: Technical Factors: Technical factors can also be risk factors for some students, including those who have substandard skills, those who have problems with access, and those whose hardware and/or software are incompatible with the university.

#6: Gender: Being male can be a risk factor for failure to persist, but only up to a certain age. “Young males don’t do as well; older guys do,” Knipe says. Male grade performance trails that of females up until the age of about 25-30, after which men outperform women.

#5: Developmental Needs: These needs include reading, writing, math, and study skills. In a presentation on the subject, Knipe identified the following data point: “For a 50/50 chance of earning a C or better in any online course, basic academic skills should be at college English level.”

#4: Engagement: “Student engagement correlates highly with on-time completion,” Knipe comments. Lack of engagement can come in several forms, including lack of engagement with the course, instructor, other students, or material; lack of feedback; lack of community; or poor instructional design, to name a few areas of potential pitfall.

#3: Age: Academic performance correlates with age. As mentioned in #6 above, gender is a predictive factor in persistence; likewise, both men’s and women’s mean grades rise as they age, although the men make more dramatic strides while the women remain relatively consistent until the age of 25-30, after which they begin to academically improve as they age.

#2: Poor or Nonexistent Advising: Students who receive no advising or who self-advise are subject to a number of potential risks, such as approaching a class with an unrealistic expectation of the time or workload commitment, an assumption that online learning will be passive, or beginning the class with poor time management skills.

#1: Time of Registration: The most dramatic indicator of risk of non-persistence is time of registration. Those who registered 70 or more days from the beginning of the class posted the highest mean grade average, while those who registered after the class had started were very likely to fail.

Strategies for Addressing Online Persistence
So what does an institution do with this sort of information? Knipe explains that there are three ways to improve persistence: better instructional design, gatekeeping, and systemic improvement.

Better instructional design: By improving instructional design, the institution can impact many of the factors within its own control. The institution can do this by training faculty adequately, insuring that course design includes ample opportunities for interaction and feedback, and that faculty can learn from one another through best practices and mentoring.

Gatekeeping: This is the process of allowing the students best-suited for online study to register for the course, while consulting with those at risk before allowing them to proceed. For example, institutions can suggest or require that students take learning style assessments and technical assessment to insure both they and their technology (computers, internet access) are suited for the demands of the course. Knipe also suggest a block be automatically put on a student registration for an online course if the student exhibits one or multiple risk factors; for example, a student attempting to register for a course after the start date may be asked to see both an advisor and the course instructor for counseling about suitability for the course.

Systemic Improvements: Even the best-designed online courses will be problematic if the student support and business processes do not work to the students’ advantage. Knipe reminds campuses that all business process, including admissions, registration, financial aid, and bookstore, must be virtual and distance-learning-friendly, as should student support services like the library, bookstore, tutoring, and the like.

Ultimately, many of the findings of Knipe’s research are somewhat intuitive, while others may raise an eyebrow or two. However, understanding the factors that may put a student at risk for failure to persist in an online class can lead to better advising, better course design, better systems, and a better institution.

Reprinted from How Ten Critical Factors Determine Persistence in Community College Online Programs, November 15, 2009, Distance Education Report.