Student persistence, reading comprehension and success in the self-paced, computer-assisted course

The relationship between quiz performance in an undergraduate self-paced Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) class and performance on reading comprehension tests was examined to determine the extent to which these domains overlap. Three experiments were conducted to determine how reading comprehension and persistence in learning determine success or failure in such a course. In Experiment 1, 114 students were given a two-part diagnostic computerized test. The first part was a general reading test where students had to read paragraphs and find contradictory statements (based on Carpenter & Just, 1977). The second part had a series of course-related paragraphs followed by multiple choice questions. Canonical and regression analyses found that the best predictor of course performance was the average accuracy in answering course-related passages. In Experiment 2, the data was re-analyzed with the average accuracy in answering multiple choice questions removed from the analysis. No significant canonical correlation was found. In Experiment 3, 34 failing and passing students' persistence levels were examined. With multiple choice accuracy scores held constant, passing students had a significantly higher number of quiz attempts than matched failing students. It is concluded that while reading comprehension is important, the most important variable in determining students' success in self-paced CAI coursework is persistence.