The effects of online and blended experience on outcomes in a blended learning environment

Highlights

• Transfer students are more experienced than native students with online and blended courses.

• Experience does not affect native students' outcomes in a subsequent blended course.

• Experience affects outcomes for high-achieving transfer students.

Abstract

Outcomes in a blended course in business and economic statistics are assessed within the context of students' previous experience with online and blended courses. Experience with class formats that rely heavily upon online materials may translate into improved outcomes in subsequent blended courses. We explore whether any significant gains accrue to students due to previous experience. When outcomes were analyzed using the full sample of students, no effects on outcomes from having previous experience versus having none were found. However, when the transfer status of students and ranges of grade point averages were considered, it was found that online and blended experience provided a positive marginal effect on outcomes for high-achieving transfer students. The effect was one-third to two-thirds of a letter grade depending on the amount of experience.

Introduction

The most recent Condition of Education report from the U.S. Department of Education (McFarland et al., 2019) shows that 32.9% of all undergraduate students enrolled in U.S. degree-granting institutions took at least one distance education course in 2017. The 2019 report also highlights that 13.3% of all undergraduate students enrolled in those institutions participated exclusively in distance education. The surge in distance education offerings at postsecondary institutions has generated an equally impressive increase in the interest of researchers across many academic disciplines to study questions related to all aspects of online learning. The blended learning format, a natural offshoot of online learning, has also spread rapidly through postsecondary education. Representative summaries of studies from the blended learning movement are available in Arbaugh et al. (2009), Arbaugh (2014), Boelens, De Wever, and Voet (2017), Halverson, Graham, Spring, Drysdale, and Henrie (2014), and O'Flaherty and Phillips (2015). Although the blended format offers more opportunities for synchronous classroom activities, it shares common ground with the purely online format in that both rely on online delivery of course content. How students interact with online materials is an issue, and challenge, that is ever present in both the online and blended formats.

One group of students particularly prone to experiencing online education is transfer students (Community College Research Center (CCRC), 2013; Shapiro, Dundar, Wakhungu, Yuan, & Harrell, 2015). According to a report published by the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center (Shapiro et al., 2015) approximately one third of students enrolled in college transfer to a different higher education institution at least once. Additionally, when compared to other age groups, mobility between institutions is particularly pronounced for students 20 years of age or younger (NSC Research Center, 2016). Transfer students can experience vertical mobility (moving from two-year to four-year institutions), reverse mobility (moving from four-year to two-year institutions), and lateral mobility (e.g., moving from a four-year to another four-year institution) (Dongbin, Saatcioglu, & Neufeld, 2012; Dougherty & Kienzl, 2006; Goldrick-Rab & Pfeffer, 2009). Regardless of the “mobility” path followed by these students, many of them will experience online learning during their academic careers since online courses are offered in most higher education institution and in almost every community college in the United States (Community College Research Center (CCRC), 2013; Instructional Technology Council (ITC), 2018). These courses typically attract non-traditional students with a strong academic background, which in turn has been found to be positively associated with the number of credits accepted by receiving institutions (Simone, 2014). For the purpose of this study, we use the comprehensive definition of transfer students provided by Shapiro et al., (2015, p.3), which includes any change in a student's institution of enrollment irrespective of the timing, direction, or location of the move. Additionally, our definition is inclusive of all students that transfer hours from other institutions. Students that do not have transfer hours on their transcript will be referred to as “native students” in what follows.

A recent study by Ivins, Copenhaver, and Koclanes (2017) provides an extensive literature review focused on transitional theory and the transfer shock in higher education. The authors define a transition as a period in-between moments of stability, initiated by the move between two socio-cultural systems, and in which a person is aware of changes in their environment that cause an internal re-adjustment (p. 245). A core issue concerning transfer students is whether they perform better or worse that their native counterparts after transitioning to a new institution of higher education. Most studies have shown the presence of a transfer shock, or a decline in student performance after transferring to a new institution, as well as an increase in attrition rates (Knoell & Medsker, 1965; Rhine, Nelson, & Milligan, 2000; Schmidt & Wartick, 2014; Thurmond, 2007). In addition, several studies have identified the grade point average of transferring students as a factor positively correlated with student transfer success (Ditchkoff, Laband, & Hanby, 2003; Townsend, McNerny, & Arnold, 1993).

Our study contributes to the limited literature examining the effect that experience with online and blended courses has on the outcomes for students enrolled in subsequent blended courses. After examining the demographic and ability characteristics, as well as the online and blended course experience of the students in our sample, we investigate student outcomes according to their level of experience. Prospective differences in outcomes for transfer and native students are examined given the prospect of transfer shock and the differing patterns of previous exposure to online and blended courses exhibited by these two groups of students. Finally, because grade point averages play an important role during transitions in higher education, prospective effects of experience are examined across ranges of grade point averages for native and transfer students.

Our goal is to discover evidence concerning the effect that experience with online and blended courses may or may not have on student outcomes in a blended course. The research questions are:

• Does experience with online and blended courses have an effect on student outcomes in subsequent blended courses?

• Does the prospective effect of experience with online and blended courses differ between transfer and native students?

• Does the prospective effect of experience with online and blended courses differ across ranges of grade point averages?