COURSE FORMAT MATTERS: EFFECTS ON STUDENT RETENTION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN TWO-YEAR POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS
Date
2024
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Abstract
Retention rates are considerably lower for students attending two-year postsecondary institutions when compared to their counterparts at four-year postsecondary institutions. This
disparity may stem from the greater number of nontraditional students at two-year
postsecondary institutions, who often struggle to balance their studies and non-academic
responsibilities. In order to enhance the academic performance and persistence of students at
two-year postsecondary institutions, educators have offered course formats that are more
flexible than the traditional face-to-face format. This study compared student retention and
academic performance across the following three course formats: traditional (16-week faceto-face), online (16-week online), and online compressed (5-week online). This study also
investigated if the effects of six student and course characteristics (gender, ethnicity, age,
cumulative GPA, enrollment status, and STEM) varied across the different course formats in
terms of student retention and academic performance. Multilevel modeling was used to
analyze the persistence and academic performance of 22,280 students attending seven
community colleges in Hawaiʻi. Results demonstrated that the 5-week online course format
yielded higher academic performance than the traditional course format. However, there was
no significant difference between the 16-week online and traditional course formats in terms
of academic performance. For student retention, the 5-week online course format produced
the highest retention rates, followed by the traditional course format with the 16-week online
course format producing the lowest retention rates. Overall, the effects of the six
characteristics on student outcomes varied across the different course formats. This study
concluded that 5-week online courses had the potential to enhance student retention and
academic performance at two-year postsecondary institutions.
Keywords: student retention, academic performance, online compressed courses, flexibility, multilevel modeling of categorical outcomes, community colleges, nontraditional
students
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Educational psychology, academic performance, community colleges, multilevel modeling of categorical outcomes, nontraditional students, online compressed courses, student retention
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118 pages
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