Successful Developmental Math Students in Traditional Format and Online Delivery: A Comparative Study

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Online Courses; Conventional Instruction; Remedial Mathematics; Mathematics Instruction; College Mathematics; Community Colleges; Two Year College Students; Comparative Analysis; Mathematics Achievement; Grades (Scholastic); Age Differences; Ethnicity; Racial Differences; Gender Differences; Educational Technology; Technology Uses in Education

The purpose of this study was to compare student performance in online and traditional classroom based developmental math courses at Texas community colleges. This study specifically examined: (a) student performance in both delivery methods, (b) students who successfully completed the developmental math course, and (c) student performance in the subsequent college-level math course. Specifically, the researcher looked at the grades of the participants in both delivery modes of the developmental math course and students' grades in their subsequent college-level math course. The results were compared to see if there was any difference in the two groups. Three institutions participated in this study and information was collected and analyzed for 10,229 students who took their last developmental math class between Spring 2011 and Fall 2013 academic terms. Online developmental math students accounted for 7.70% of the population and the remaining 92.30% took developmental math in a traditional classroom. An independent samples "t"-test was conducted to compare the grades of students who took a developmental math course online to students who took developmental math in a traditional face-to-face classroom. A second independent samples "t"-test was conducted to examine the effect of the students' developmental math delivery mode on their college-level course grade. Finally, descriptive data, including means and standard deviations, were reported for the independent and dependent variables and for student demographic variables including age, ethnicity, and gender. Results regarding the performances of students in online and traditional face-to-face based developmental math courses and student performance in the subsequent college-level math course were statistically significant. Students who chose the online format did not perform as well as those in the traditional classroom; however, students who passed developmental math online, performed statistically better in the first level college course than students who did not pass developmental math online. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As Provided

2017

ED577185