Navigating the Path to Success or Drifting Off Course? Analyzing the Impacts of Online Course Formats in LACCD

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the expansion of online education across sectors. While distance education has long represented a share of higher education courses, community college faculty and students alike have demonstrated an affinity for the continuation of these options. There have also been substantial investments in technology, software, and faculty training prompted by the pandemic that may have improved the quality of online courses, making them a more viable option for promoting both access and success. We explore these questions within the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), one of the largest and most diverse community college systems in the United States. We first use qualitative focus group data to analyze faculty perceptions of students’ academic habits in online courses, as well as their understanding of the mechanisms of and enabling conditions for student success. We then quantitatively test these perceptions by estimating the impact of course modality on students’ academic outcomes and how those effects vary across subjects.

See also the working paper "Going the Distance or Growing More Remote? The Academic Impacts of Course Modality following Pandemic-Era Investments."