| The growing emphasis on electronic delivery of education in Arizona has occurred as the state's population demographics are rapidly changing. New resources in the state are being targeted at distance education, particularly the development of online education. This study was conducted at Phoenix College, one of Arizona's most culturally diverse urban campuses, in the early stages of its web course development. The sample was 252 students enrolled in ten web sections of English 101, 102, and Psychology 101. Data sources were student records, an electronic readiness survey, and follow up interviews. The study explored relationships between student demographics and success in web courses, student reasons for enrolling in web courses, perceived barriers to success, experiences in web versus traditional courses, suggestions for improving the web course experience, and intention to enroll in web courses in the future.;Findings indicated 39.5% of web students completed their courses, compared to a campus completion rate of 72.5% overall. For those who did succeed, the highest rate was for older students and women. Black student success rates were significantly lower than all other ethnicities, and men succeeded at a lower rate than women. Hispanics and Native Americans succeeded at lower rates than White and Asian students. Success also varied markedly across courses and instructors, with Psychology students succeeding at the highest rates, and second semester English at the lowest. Student interviews suggested that insufficient technology experience contributed most to attrition, followed by learner characteristics, such as self-motivation, tendency to procrastinate, and comfort with learning independently. Work schedules were the most common reason for choosing to take a web course, followed by family obligations that kept students place-bound.;Recommendations included: (1) improved training, development, and mentoring programs for faculty teaching on the web; (2) inclusion of web components in traditional courses to introduce the web to students who would not naturally gravitate toward it; (3) improved advisor training for web courses; (4) more institutional resources for course design; (5) adoption of student recommendations for better communication and technical support. |
