PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Student characteristics and online retention: Preliminary investigation of factors relevant to mathematics course outcomes
Page: 1442
There is evidence that students drop out at higher rates from online than face-to-face courses, yet it is not well understood which students are particularly at risk online. In particular, online mathematics (and other STEM) courses have not been well-studied in the context of larger-scale analyses of online dropout. This study surveyed online and face-to- face students from a large U.S. university system. Results suggest that for online courses generally, student parents and native-born may be particularly vulnerable to poor online- versus-face-to-face course outcomes. The next stage of this research will be to analyze the factors that are relevant to online versus face-to-face retention in mathematics (and other STEM) courses specifically.