Notes on: Student Performance at a Community College: Mode of Delivery, Employment, and Academic Skills as Predictors of Success

Online enrollment at community colleges has increased 8.2%, compared to no change for overall enrollment in 2011.

There is little research done on the specific population of community colleges with regards to online education and performance at 2-year institutions.

Large studies focusing on the community college populations have produced varied results and ignored relevant variables.

The variables used in the study have been linked in the literature to be strong predictors of success, these include:

• Age
• Gender
• Course load
• Caregiver status
•  Mode of delivery
• GPA
• Credits previously completed
• Employment (average working hours)
• Math, reading & writing proficiency 

There were no significant differences between the online and F2F students in many of the categories, although some factors (GPA, math placement, employment, and mode of delivery) were detrimental factors.

• 60% of students employed more than 12hrs and 60.7% of online students experienced negative results.
• 25% of employed students 12hr or fewer and 34.7% of F2F students experienced negative results. 
• Students in a math placement of 4 or less has 21.78 points less in the final exam, compared to those place above 4.
• Students employed 40+hrs had 24.95 points lower than students not employed, in the final exam.
• Online student's final exam score was 11.8 points lower than F2F students.
• Math placement and employment seem to be bigger predictors of success.

Even though math was used as a predictor, the course required simple Algebra not a heavy complexity - yet math still showed as having a relationship.

Feeling of isolation seem to be present in online community college students, made increased by the effect of long hours in work having an effect in interaction time.

Results are consistent with previous data stating that online students are less likely to complete successfully their courses than F2F.

Reference:

Wolff, B. G., Wood-kustanowitz, a M., & Ashkenazi, J. M. (2014). Student Performance at a Community College: Mode of Delivery, Employment, and Academic Skills as Predictors of Success. 10(2), 166–178.

1st broad search - after refining process

Sunday (05-31-15) I posted the results of my first broad search. From that search I was able to get 317 articles, organized into 8 categories based on the search I had performed. I followed that by going into each folder and reading the abstracts; from these I was able to eliminate the articles that were not relevant to the Lit. Review. The final count of articles, after the processes of refinement, is 184.

I debated how I was going to keep notes while the procedure and I finally did a combination of my options. For smaller folders, it was easier for me to read through all the abstracts and once I reviewed the material, I made a list of key points per folder. When I reacher the largest of the folders (200+ articles), I broke the reading into pages and as I read the abstracts I took notes on trends I noticed. Something that I feel is important to note is that like when doing the searches that I focused on the search and not the work as a whole, I followed the same procedure here - when considering an abstract, I evaluated how it fit within the story and topics of that folder (key word search).

Notable trends from the readings include:

• interest of minority students in the STEM fields.
• while considering courses in which to integrate concepts/disciplines, the focus are the introductory and developmental courses.
• gaming is associated with engagement and increased interest and has been used in different grade levels and topics/disciplines.
• online strategies are synonymous with web 2.0 strategies - collaboration, social media and mobile technology through and as support to the online space. These strategies are not only focused towards education, but also training for future work opportunities and potential expectations.
• there is a real difficulty of students to integrate concepts, but there is a trend towards the integration of disciplines - math & science, and others. Integration leads to improvement in critical thinking and broader views of the world, society and resources.
• integration of concepts and disciplines, in addition to links to research has been through problem-based learning and active-learning strategies, while technology is used as support and enhancement.
• many studies show "no significant difference" when comparing face-to-face and online delivery, although there are conflicting findings.
• importance of the development of authentic assessments and the use of web 2.0 strategies to achieve these.

In addition to the trends that have emerged in the refinement process, 8 articles have been identified as key reports within areas of search. These articles will be the first that I look into when starting the in-depth reading process and may serve as anchors for the final project. Likewise, information such as conceptual frameworks, strategies and topics have been identified for their potential relevance; these include:

• Edgar Morin's paradigm of complexity
• gaming as a form of active learning, moving away from "banking model"; Crocoo, Francesco (2011).
• Seven Elements of STEM Learning
• Transformational Teaching

Next step is to read and start grouping articles into large identified topics and connections among them to construct the larger story.