Student Performance at a Community College: Mode of Delivery, Employment, and Academic Skills as Predictors of Success

Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate differences in online and face-to-face (F2F) student performance. However, relatively little work has been done to evaluate differences in online and F2F student performance at community colleges, which attract different students than 4-year institutions and professional programs. Using multiple and logistic regression models, the authors examined 11 predictors of performance in an environmental biology course taught both online and F2F at a community college in the Midwestern United States. Employment, math proficiency, and mode of delivery proved to be significant predictors of successful course completion. Employment and math proficiency were also found to be significant predictors of final exam performance, but mode of delivery was insignificant at an alpha level of .05. However, differential attrition rates appear likely to have masked a meaningful difference in online and F2F final exam scores. When quiz results were used to estimate the final exam scores for course dropouts, mode of delivery was found to be a significant predictor of final exam performance.