Navigating the Path to Success or Drifting Off Course? Analyzing the Impacts of Online Course Formats in LACCD
This post originally appeared on the Center for Education Policy Research blog.
Can online education truly level the playing field—or is it setting some students up to fail?
While online courses may increase access to higher education, providing the flexibility students need to balance the competing demands of school, work, and caregiving, previous research suggests that participation in online coursework may come at an academic cost for students in terms of grades, credit accumulation, and persistence to graduation.¹
Now that advances in technology, software, and faculty training—prompted and accelerated by the onset of the pandemic—have enabled institutions to offer a broader variety of course modalities and more sections online, administrators face critical decisions about how to balance the demand for online courses with concerns about the impact on student success. A critical question remains: in the post-pandemic era, does online coursework continue to lower student academic performance?
We explored this question within the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), one of the largest and most diverse community college systems in the United States. We conducted a quantitative analysis to empirically test whether students perform worse in online courses compared to in-person formats. We combine these findings with insights from qualitative focus groups to explore faculty perspectives on the underlying challenges that might explain student academic performance across course modalities.
Quantitative Findings: What the Data Reveal about Student Success
Our quantitative analysis of the impact of course modality on student success revealed the following:
- Student Performance in Online Courses Improved After the Pandemic: While students who took a given course online were less likely to pass before the pandemic, the negative impact of taking a course online on course completion and students’ likelihood of passing was reduced—though not eliminated—following the investments in online education during the pandemic.
- Evidence of a Persistence Problem: Taking any credits online led to small or no differences in credits earned and term GPA, and a slight decrease in persistence.
- Difficulties in the Humanities: The negative impacts of taking a course online are larger in the humanities than for STEM and social sciences.
- Better Performance for Students Taking a Mix of Modalities: Students who took some, but not all, of their credits online experienced better outcomes than those who took all their credits online. It is possible that having an in-person anchor course can help connect students to the campus community and resources.
- Worse Performance in Synchronous Courses: The impacts of taking synchronous (i.e., live) courses online were worse than for asynchronous courses, perhaps reflecting distraction and disengagement with courses that do not offer flexible participation options. However, all online course-taking had some negative effect on GPA, credit accumulation, and persistence.
- Worse Performance for Older and Academically Struggling Students: Outcomes for students taking online courses varied across student populations. Students aged 24 and older tended to perform less well when participating in at least some online courses. In contrast, those with prior term GPAs above 2.0 generally experienced more positive outcomes, perhaps reflecting the development over time of skills specific to online learning.
Faculty Perceptions: What Instructors See
What do faculty think explains the differences in how students perform in online versus in-person classes? Faculty in our focus groups shared these observations about online courses:
- Importance of Self-Discipline and Strong Study Skills: Faculty observe that online courses tend to work particularly well for highly motivated, self-directed students with strong study skills, while potentially presenting additional challenges for other learners.
- Less Student Engagement: Faculty note that building consistent student engagement in online environments can be more challenging than in face-to-face settings, potentially affecting course success and academic integrity.
- Disciplinary Differences and Inconsistent Course Design: Faculty view course subject and the design of course materials as key factors in student success. Cognitively demanding subjects and courses that need spontaneous interaction between students and faculty or that benefit from tactile/kinesthetic engagement— as in many STEM fields—are more difficult to teach online. Surprisingly, this perception contrasts with our findings that, post-pandemic, the impact of online course taking is worse in humanities courses than STEM. Faculty also believe that better course module organization and more engaging content presentation make a difference for students.
Taken together, our results suggest that the impacts of online courses have shifted since the pandemic. The negative impacts on credit accumulation, course completion, and course passage before the pandemic lessen or disappear in the post-pandemic years. This is potentially due to investments in faculty development, student technological access, and increased familiarity with online learning.
Still, despite the improvements in credit accumulation, there is evidence that online course taking continues to have a slight negative impact on GPA and a persistent negative impact on students’ likelihood of persisting to the next term.
This is concerning, as the goal of online education is to offer flexibility that helps students stay enrolled so they can complete a credential. Faculty focus groups suggest that investing in helping students build strong academic skills and engage more in online courses may improve outcomes. Additionally, faculty suggest that continued professional development in online teaching methods and more effective use of learning technologies could further strengthen the online learning experience.
Our work underscores both the promise and challenge of online education. We look forward to continuing to delve into these nuances with community college practitioners to find ways that best meet student needs and promote success.
For more on our quantitative research, check out our briefs describing the effect of online course-taking for student outcomes and exploring differences in effects by subject.
- Kofoed, et al., 2021; Jaggars & Xu, 2016; Xu & Jaggars, 2013, 2014
This work was conducted by the Leveraging Technology and Engaging Students (LTES) project, with research analsyses led by Rachel Worsham and Soumya Mishra. This blog was written with support from Rachel Tropp.
