Comparison of course completion and student performance through online and traditional courses

Wayne Atchley, Gary Wingenbach, Cindy Akers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

Enrollment in online courses has outpaced overall university enrollment for the past several years. The growth of online courses does not appear to be slowing. The purpose of this study was to compare course completion and student academic performance between online and traditional courses. Archival data from the host university student records system was collected using the Structured Query Language. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze student characteristics. Chi-square analysis was used to determine if statistically significant differences existed between students enrolled in online and traditional courses when comparing course completion and academic performance. Analysis found statistically significant differences existed in both course completion and academic performance for students enrolled in online versus traditional courses. Additional analysis indicated statistically significant differences existed in course completion by course discipline.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)104-116
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

Keywords

  • Online education
  • Student performance
  • Student retention

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