Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Education, Ed.D.

Department

Education

LC Subjects

College teaching--United States; Community colleges; Educational research; Teaching--Methodology

Abstract

This study compared the effectiveness of courses taught in a five-week intensive hybrid course format with courses taught in an 11-week traditional course format, in order to explore options for expanding access to higher education in a community college setting. A second theme of the study was that expanding academic access through alternative formats is only valuable if courses produce positive academic results. The historical rationale behind community colleges and the contemporary initiatives to expand them have underscored the need to increase access by providing a range of options to higher education that meet the varying needs of students. The study used matched pairs of courses taught by the same instructor with the same content, texts, and assignments in the two different delivery modes to gather quantitative and qualitative information to evaluate effectiveness. The study also investigated student characteristics that could affect learning in the different formats, and strategies for successfully teaching students in an intensive hybrid course format. Data were gathered from four sources at a community college in the Pacific Northwest: institutional data on student characteristics and performance, in-class student surveys, pretests and post tests of knowledge, and qualitative interviews with instructors. Linear regression analyses and t-tests showed no statistically-significant differences in earned grades between the two formats, controlling for other predictors of student success, including age, gender, and academic characteristics. Therefore the study demonstrated that the alternative format of the five-week hybrid course was academically effective in a community college, and could expand access to higher education for students in this setting.

Comments

Copyright for this work is retained by the author.

Download

Included in

Education Commons

Share

COinS