Publications
Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas
This study examines how well students adapt to the online environment in terms of their ability to persist and earn strong grades in online courses relative to their ability to do so in face-to-face courses.
Choosing Between Online and Face-to-Face Courses
This article discusses community college students’ experiences with online and face-to-face learning and implications for community colleges.
Faculty Orientations Toward Instructional Reform
This issue of Inside Out identifies and explores the implications of three faculty orientations toward reform that consistently manifest when an innovation is introduced: ready to act, ambivalent, and reluctant to change.
Role Ambiguity in Online Courses: An Analysis of Student and Instructor Expectations
Using data from a qualitative investigation of online courses at two community colleges, this paper examines how expectations about the roles of online student and online instructor differ among these two groups.
Facilitating Student Learning Through Contextualization (Assessment of Evidence Series)
This journal article reviews the evidence for contextualization, an instructional approach that connects foundational skills and college-level content.
Examining the Effectiveness of Online Learning Within a Community College System: An Instrumental Variable Approach
Using an instrumental variable technique, the authors estimate the impact of online versus face-to-face course delivery on student course performance, as indicated by course persistence and final course grade.
Book Review: "Higher Education in the Digital Age"
Melinda Mechur Karp reviews Higher Education in the Digital Age and argues that the author ignores the potential stratifying effects of online learning in higher education.
What We Know About Online Course Outcomes
This practitioner packet summarizes CCRC findings on online course outcomes and presents insights and recommendations for administrators and instructors seeking to improve online student performance.
Online Learning in Community Colleges
This chapter reviews the literature on online learning in community colleges, focusing online course-taking patterns, performance in online versus face-to-face courses, and factors affecting online course performance.
Pathways to Faculty Learning and Pedagogical Improvement
This issue of Inside Out explores how developmental education reforms can create opportunities for faculty to engage in professional learning related to instruction.
College 101 Courses for Applied Learning and Student Success
A study of College 101 courses at three community colleges in Virginia suggests that these courses could have long-term impacts if they focused more on the application and practice of learned skills.
Teaching Academically Underprepared Students in Community Colleges
This chapter discusses instructional approaches intended to prepare initially low-skilled college entrants for the reading, writing, and mathematics skills they need to learn from the postsecondary curriculum.
Teaching and Learning in the Dual Enrollment Classroom
Using qualitative data from California's Concurrent Courses Initiative, this article explores how teaching in a dual enrollment program can foster new approaches to classroom pedagogy.
Adoption and Adaptation: A Framework for Instructional Reform
This edition of Inside Out, a publication of CCRC's Scaling Innovation project, outlines a three-part framework for colleges looking to adopt and adapt a developmental education reform.
Doing Developmental Education Differently
This inaugural edition of Inside Out, a publication of CCRC's Scaling Innovation project, provides an introduction to the project and its partners.
The Effectiveness of Distance Education Across Virginia's Community Colleges: Evidence From Introductory College-Level Math and English Courses
This study used a statewide administrative dataset to estimate the effects of taking one's first college-level math or English course online rather than face to face, in terms of both course retention and course performance.
Online Learning: Does It Help Low-Income and Underprepared Students? (Assessment of Evidence Series)
This review of the postsecondary literature on online learning suggests that online coursework hinders progression for low-income and underprepared students, explores why students might struggle in these courses, and offers suggestions on how public policy and institutional practice could be changed to improve online learning.
Online and Hybrid Course Enrollment and Performance in Washington State Community and Technical Colleges
This working paper investigates enrollment patterns and academic outcomes over five years in online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses among students who enrolled in Washington State community and technical colleges in the fall of 2004.
Reforming Mathematics Classroom Pedagogy: Evidence-Based Findings and Recommendations for the Developmental Math Classroom (Assessment of Evidence Series)
This paper reviews the evidence base for pedagogical reforms in the developmental mathematics classroom, examining the theoretical and empirical evidence on six innovative instructional approaches.
A Contextualized Intervention for Community College Developmental Reading and Writing Students
This paper provides evidence on the potential efficacy of a contextualized approach in helping students develop an important academic skill, written summarization.