Recent increases in high school graduation rates have been linked anecdotally to online course-taking for credit recovery. Online course-taking that supports high school completion could open opportunities for postsecondary education pursuits. Alternatively, poorer quality online instruction could diminish student learning and discourage persistence toward graduation and further education. Using quasi-experimental methods in an 8-year longitudinal study of high school online course-taking, we find positive associations between online course-taking, credits earned and high school graduation, and for those with limited online course-taking, small increases in college enrollment. However, we find significantly lower 4-year college enrollments and lower quality college enrollments for all online course-takers, leaving open the question of whether online course-taking will lead to long-term postsecondary education and labor market success.

近期高中毕业率的提高已与学分恢复的在线课程联系起来。支持高中毕业的在线课程可以为追求高等教育的学生提供机会。另外，较差的在线教学质量可能会减少学生的学习，并不利于坚持毕业和继续教育。在对高中在线课程学习进行为期8年的纵向研究中，使用准实验方法，我们发现在线课程学习，学分与高中毕业之间存在正相关关系，而对于那些在线课程学习有限的人，在线学习的增加很小大学入学率。但是，我们发现所有在线课程录取者的4年制大学入学率明显降低，而大学入学率则下降了，