Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Rebecca Libler

Second Advisor

Joshua Powers

Third Advisor

Rebecca Nickoli

Abstract

The growing number of students enrolling at community colleges, the continuing number of underprepared students requiring remedial education, and the increasing number of students interested in the flexibility of online courses were the reasons for this study, which examined not only those demographic variables that research often suggests are related to success, but also the learner characteristic of self-regulation. Participants included 82 first-time freshman enrolled in an online study skills course at a two-year community college. The students' total level of self-regulation and its components of executive processing, cognitive processing, motivation, and environmental control were measured using The Self-Regulated Learning Inventory. Students who scored below the cutoff scores on the ASSET instrument in reading, writing, or math were identified as underprepared. Results indicated that success in the online course was positively related to a student's cognitive processing score. Cognitive processing was significantly related to gender and approached significance to age. The student's total self-regulation score approached significance to success in the course and to gender. Students who used more self-regulating strategies and required less remediation were more likely to persist in the online course.

Download

Share

COinS