Title of Effective Practice: - California Postsecondary Education ...

What are the results/measurable outcomes?
For spring 2006, 392 students were taking all or the majority of their classes online. This number comprised
62% of the University’s total “other campus” enrollment including off-campus cohorts, etc. This compares to
325 students taking all or most of their classes online in spring 2005, an increase of 20.6%. These same 392
online-only students comprise 6% of the University’s 6,879 total spring 2006 unduplicated headcount.
Retention and graduation rates are not reported separately for RUOnline. This data is difficult to mine because
only two complete degree programs are online. The remaining students mix online and campus-based courses.
RUOnline does, however, compare course completions and grades between online and campus-based students.
This is an imperfect measure for many reasons, most significantly the extreme differences in group size, but it
does provide some idea of online student success and suggests areas in need of attention. For example, for fall
and spring semesters from fall 2001 through spring 2005, 9.3% of online students were unsuccessful in their
courses compared to 6.6% of campus-based students. Overall, this is a high pass rate for fully online students.
Overall, performance in online courses is comparable within a few percentage points to performance in
campus-based courses. Performance is lowest in entry-level courses. In addition, RUOnline monitors
evaluations by course and faculty member, and when some variation in performance is evident or performance
at an extreme is noted, RUOnline shares this information with the appropriate academic units.
Faculty members have anecdotal comparisons between online versus campus-based teaching, but some faculty
and programs have systematically tracked performance data. In fall 2005, a sociology professor taught two
sections of the required research course, one on campus and one online. He gave the same assignments and
tracked performance between the two groups. His data demonstrates that online students out-performed campusbased
students on nine of ten performance measures. The faculty member attributed this to online students
reading more than campus-based students.
The Graduate Program in Training and Development went further in its comparison of campus-based and online
students. They studied 112 students entering the program, all taking the same class. As reported in Volume 18 of
the ISPI Performance Improvement Quarterly, online students outperformed campus-based students on several
measures including enjoyment, utility, perceived level of difficulty, and motivation. Most importantly, they
scored higher on intent to transfer what they learned, level of learning, goal orientation, and metacognitive
activity.
Contact Information
Name: Gary K. Wolfe
Email: gwolfe@roosevelt.edu
Phone: (312) 281-3150
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