{"id":218,"date":"2014-07-30T13:55:09","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T13:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hets.org\/ejournal\/?p=218"},"modified":"2014-07-30T13:55:09","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T13:55:09","slug":"minority-student-access-in-the-online-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hets.org\/ejournal\/minority-student-access-in-the-online-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Minority Student Access in the Online Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abstract<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Using registration and transcript data, the authors explored differences in online course enrollment across different student groups.\u00a0 This study revealed that minority students do not enroll in online courses to the same extent as their White student peers, but the effect size for the difference in participation rates was small.\u00a0 However, the actual difference between minority students online vs. face-to-face enrollment was five percentage points, a difference equivalent to about 150 minority students per year, given the College\u2019s current enrollment rates, so the impact of this small difference is not insignificant.\u00a0 An even greater issue is that Black and Hispanic students, regardless of the course delivery medium, continue to have lower G.P.A. s than their White and Asian\/Pacific Islander (PI) student peers.\u00a0 This finding reinforces prior research that suggests Black and Hispanic student groups need additional support in order to be successful in college, and that greater recruitment efforts for online courses are needed for all minority groups.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior research has also shown that students who enroll in online courses at the college have higher G.P.A.’s than students who enroll in face-to-face courses; however, this study reveals a notable exception to this pattern.\u00a0 Black, Hispanic and White students who select online courses are better prepared (as denoted by G.P.A.) \u00a0than students who select face-to-face courses, suggesting that the weaker students in these groups are influenced by academic experience in their decision not to enroll in online classes.\u00a0 Among Asian\/PI students, however, there is no significant difference between students who select face to face versus online courses, suggesting that there are differences in the factors that determine online enrollment in this group compared to others.\u00a0 This leaves open some important questions about online enrollment and its relationship to student G.P.A. among different ethnic groups.\u00a0 In this case, why are Asian\/PI students with higher G.P.A.’s choosing not to register for online courses at the same rate as students from other ethnic groups?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

With recent social and economic changes in the United States, higher education has never been in greater demand.\u00a0 College enrollments in the fall of 2008 increased at rates not seen in the past 40 years, led by growth in community colleges, increased enrollment of minority students and the rise of online classes.\u00a0\u00a0 Overall enrollment in community colleges in 2008 grew 11%, continuing their mission to provide access for minorities, students of lower socio-economic status and those students not served by traditional four year colleges and universities (Shannon & Smith, 2006).\u00a0 Minority student enrollments in higher education that year, particularly Hispanic and Black students, increased 15% and 8% respectively, continuing a trend of higher high school graduation rates and college enrollments for these populations (Fry, 2010).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Faced with unprecedented demand, yet also constrained by economics and space, colleges are responding by offering more courses online. Unlike in the past, when colleges added to their existing bricks and mortar to meet demand and a mature community college system was described as one in which 90-95% of the population resided within 25 miles of the campus, today\u2019s community colleges no longer define themselves by geographic limitations, and facing fiscal constraints, look to technology to expand course offerings (Cohen and Brawer, 1996; Jones, 2003).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The result is an explosion in online course enrollments, surging more than 20% in the last school year alone and outpacing higher education enrollments overall for the past seven years (Allen & Seaman, 2011).<\/span><\/p>\n

Providing another pathway to higher education, online learning courses have become a core feature of services offered at most colleges and universities (Downes, 2005).\u00a0 Leading the way in this method of instructional delivery are public community colleges, with nearly all community colleges currently offering some form of online education (Parsad, Lewis & Tice, 2008).\u00a0 Community colleges as early adopters is not surprising, as online learning has been touted as a potential agent of social change, offering minorities an opportunity to attain previously inaccessible education while addressing the unique needs of underrepresented, isolated and frequently marginalized cultures (Langier, 2003).\u00a0 Students from minority cultures have been shown to exhibit feelings of isolation from the majority culture found on most campuses (Enger, 2006; Langier, 2003) and online learning may offer a social process that can allow students and faculty to transcend cultural barriers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the promise of online learning for traditionally underrepresented groups is under-researched and perhaps not being realized.\u00a0 Buzzetto-More & Sweat-Guy (2006) conducted an extensive review of the literature that revealed that there is a substantial lack of research focusing specifically on Black college students with respect to online learning.\u00a0 Additionally, there is relatively little research on Hispanic college students in the distance learning environment, and what is available suggests that community college online learners are typically not of Hispanic origin (Halsne & Gatta, 2002).\u00a0\u00a0 And at least one study found that ethnicity was not a factor in online course completion (Aragon & Johnson, 2008), however, these results have not been substantiated with further research. Overall, despite the rapid growth in online course offerings and the large numbers of community college students coming from traditionally underrepresented groups, there is very little knowledge about enrollment patterns in online courses in general (Frankola, 2001; Maxwell, 2003), and of minorities at community colleges in particular.\u00a0 It seems clear from the gap in the literature that not enough is known about inclusiveness in online learning and that research is needed to guide potential interventions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Purpose of the Study<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Instruction which relies heavily on technology may appear to be culturally neutral but in fact may make assumptions based on the dominant culture.\u00a0 The internet is dominated by both English language and Western ideologies, and can also emphasize learning autonomy, all of which might disadvantage students whose identity is with a non-western culture or a culture which encourages cooperative learning or relies on external referents (Chen, et al., 1999; Joo, 1999).\u00a0 African American and Hispanic cultures are more field dependent (reliant on external referents) for example than Anglo-Americans, even though all three groups may have been raised in close geographic proximity to one another (Duroyde and Hildreth, 1995).\u00a0 Given the rise of online learning at the community college level, combined with high minority populations as enrollees, it is important\u00a0 to address differences in student demographics in order to determine if the rise of online courses offers the intended goal of equity and inclusion. This study seeks to assess if students from traditionally underrepresented groups are accessing online courses, specifically:<\/span><\/p>\n