Peter Shea

Peter Shea: Enrollment & Completion

Presenter: Peter Shea is a member of the faculty of the Department of Educational Theory and Practice and the College of Computing and Information at the SUNY University at Albany.

Day 1 Presentation

Online Course Enrollment and Degree Completion: The Tipping Point
Recent research indicates that certain students are at risk of lower levels of academic performance in online setting when compared to peers who study only in the classroom.  Community college students have been a population of particular concern.  In this presentation we present a study in which we hypothesize that online course load and institutional quality may impact outcomes for students at risk for lower levels of degree attainment.  Using comprehensive data from the 30 community colleges (n=45,557) of the State University of New York, we examine whether there is a “tipping point” at which online course load becomes problematic for community college learners seeking to attain a degree through a mix of online and face-to-face coursework. We also present findings indicating that certain institutions excel at supporting online learner success among more at-risk populations who choose online study.