Assessing Readiness for Online Education — Research Models for Identifying Students at Risk

Abstract

This study explored the interaction between student characteristics and the online environment in predicting course performance and subsequent college persistence among students in a large urban U.S. university system. Multilevel modeling, propensity score matching, and the KHB decomposition method were used. The most consistent pattern observed was that native-born students were at greater risk online than foreign-born students, relative to their face-to-face outcomes. Having a child under 6 years of age also interacted with the online medium to predict lower rates of successful course completion online than would be expected based on face-to-face outcomes. In addition, while students enrolled in online courses were more likely to drop out of college, online course outcomes had no direct effect on college persistence; rather other characteristics seemed to make students simultaneously both more likely to enroll online and to drop out of college.

Keywords

• student characteristics
• retention
• persistence
• higher education
• student parents