The Role of Enrollment Choice in Online Education: Course Selection Rationale and Course Difficulty as Factors Affecting Retention
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There is well-documented evidence that online retention rates are lower than face-to-face retention rates; however, most past research on online retention focuses on student characteristics, with little knowledge existing on the impact of course type. This study uses a matched sample of 2,330 students at a large urban community college to analyze two key course-level factors which may be impacting online retention: the student’s reason for taking the course (as an elective or a requirement) and course difficulty level. The results of this study indicate that the online modality increases dropout risk in courses that are taken as an elective or distributional requirement, particularly for lower-level courses. The findings suggest that in the online environment, the student’s reason for course enrollment may be considered a risk indicator and that focused learner support targeted at particular course types may be needed to increase online persistence and retention.
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Course type (major requirement, distributional requirement, elective) explains variation in online versus face-to-face courses.
“These categories have also been shown to explain variation in online versus face-to-face courses in prior research (Wladis et al., 2014(Wladis et al., , 2017)).”
From Competing hypotheses about online versus face-to-face course outcomes: Analysis leveraging the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic (2025) · cites this paper as Wladis et al., 2014
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Cites
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Wladis, C., Hachey, A. C., & Conway, K. M. (2015) · Community College Review · doi:10.1177/0091552114555904 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
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Volchok, E. (2019) · Community College Journal of Research and Practice · doi:10.1080/10668926.2018.1556134 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Wladis, C., Hachey, A. C., Conway, K., & Manly, C. (2025) · Online Learning · doi:10.24059/olj.v29i3.5018
Self-citation
- Authors
- Wladis, C., Conway, K. W., & Hachey, A. C.
- Affiliations
- Borough of Manhattan Community College (US)
- ORCID
- Hachey, Alyse C.
- Venue
- Online Learning
- Publisher
- The Online Learning Consortium
- Published
- 2014-08-25
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 1092-8235 (ISSN-L)
- 2472-5730
- 2472-5749
- OpenAlex
- W1924944028
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 11.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Online Learning (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- City University of New York
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Demography › Evasion and Academic Success Factors
- Keywords
- online learning, student retention, course selection, elective courses, compulsory courses, course difficulty, dropout risk, community college students, student support
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