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Online Learning in Community Colleges of the State University of New York:
Initial Results on Differences between Classroom-Only and Online Learners
Peter Shea, Temi Bidjerano
members were tracked over seven semesters excluding the summer months. To address the
study research questions, we selected subsamples of students who had both online and
classroom coursework in any given semester. The analytic samples varied from semester to
semester due to the fact that there was no continuity in course taking patterns for the cohort.
Table 1: Student Demographic Characteristics: Variable Means and Proportions by Semester
Fa 12 S 13 Fa 13 S 14 Fa 14 S 15 Fa 15
Female .52 .57 .59 .58 .60 .59 .60
Age 21.47 20.99 20.67 20.4 20.64 20.45 20.22
Race White .74 .75 .76 .76 .72 .69 .69
Asian .03 .02 .02 .02 .03 .03 .03
Black .10 .10 .08 .08 .10 .12 .10
Hispanic .10 .09 .10 .09 .12 .13 .14
Other .03 .04 .04 .04 .04 .03 .04
Goal Transfer .27 .31 .34 .37 .33 .35 .36
Degree .15 .15 .14 .13 .13 .14 .12
Job .14 .13 .14 .13 .14 .13 .12
Remedial .43 .43 .42 .42 .51 .54 .51
Program Cert .04 .03 .03 .96 .02 .02 .02
AA .93 .96 .96 .02 .89 .83 .71
BA — — .01 .01 .08 .13 .25
Full-time .91 .91 .91 .91 .83 .80 .76
Pell .53 .54 .49 .47 .49 .50 .43
Institution Suburban .64 .59 .58 .58 .66 .68 .74
Large .60 .53 .51 .49 .55 .56 .54
Gr. Rate 22.34 22.91 23.06 23.34 25.1 26.35 31.32
4-Yr — — .01 .01 .08 .13 .25
Degree .24 .31 .42 .50 .44 .38 .23
N 3,867 4,914 4,713 5,385 3,566 2,976 1,899
Note. Proportions do not sum up to 1.0 due to rounding; Age = Age as of September 2012;
Goal = Student goal as of fall 2012; Remedial = Qualified for remedial coursework in Fall 12;
Cert = Enrolled in a Certificate degree program; AA = Enrolled in an Associate degree program;
BA = Baccalaureate Degree Program; Pell = Pell grant recipient; Gr. Rate = Institution graduation
rates for the cohort of 2011; 4-Yr = 4-year institution; Degree = attained a degree by Fall 2015.
In addition to GPA obtained in online and classroom courses, we considered the following
variables at various stages of the analysis: (a) student demographics: race, gender, age,
academic ability (whether the student was enrolled in a remedial/ developmental course in
his/her first semester in college); (b) semester enrolment information: type of academic
program (Certificate, Associates, or Baccalaureate), full-time status, financial need (Pell grant
recipient vs. not), online load (proportion of online credits attempted), and proportion of
credits attempted in the disciplines Humanities, Social Sciences, Professional, and STEM; and
(c) institutional characteristics: size (small or large), location (suburban vs. other),
graduations rates for the cohort of students immediately preceding the 2012 community
college cohort.
68 Reaching from the roots – 9 th EDEN Research Workshop Proceedings, 2016, Oldenburg
ISBN 978-615-5511-12-7