Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Olinzock, Anthony A.

Committee Member

Yu, Chien

Committee Member

Adams, James H.

Committee Member

Prince, Debra L.

Date of Degree

12-11-2015

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant differences in students based of education demographics and what factors contributed to the successful completion of online courses for postsecondary education students. Specifically, this study sought to determine if there was a significant difference between certain educational demographics (gender, race, classification, course, and professor) and grade; a significant relationship between specific online course features (availability of chat, videos, discussion boards, and video conferences) and grade; a significant relationship between certain student behaviors (location of access, time to complete assignments, interaction with content, frequency of access, interaction with instructor, and interaction with students) and grade; and students’ perception and grades. A Kruskal-Wallis analysis was conducted to analyze differences within and between groups by educational demographics. Spearman Rho’s Correlations were computed to examine if a significant relationship existed between the aforementioned independent variables and the dependent variable of students’ grades. After the data were collected and analyzed, the findings showed that there were no statistically significant differences among students who completed online courses. There was no statistically significant relationships between the independent variables and students’ grades.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18856

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