Abstract
Online education has grown rapidly in recent years with many universities now offering fully online degree programs even in STEM disciplines. These programs have the potential to broaden access to STEM degrees for people with social identities currently underrepresented in STEM. Here, we ask to what extent is that potential realized in terms of student enrollment and grades for a fully online degree program. Our analysis of data from more than 10,000 course-enrollments compares student demographics and course grades in a fully online biology degree program to demographics and grades in an equivalent in-person biology degree program at the same university. We find that women, first-generation to college students and students eligible for federal Pell grants constitute a larger proportion of students in the online program compared to the in-person mode. However, the online mode of instruction is associated with lower course grades relative to the in-person mode. Moreover, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander students as well as federal Pell grant eligible students earned lower grades than white students and non-Pell grant eligible students, respectively, but the grade disparities were similar among both in-person and online student groups. Finally, we find that grade disparities between men and women are larger online compared to in-person, but that for first-generation to college women, the online mode of instruction is associated with little to no grade gap compared to continuing generation women. Our findings indicate that although this online degree program broadens access for some student populations, inequities in the experience remain and need to be addressed in order for online education to achieve its inclusive mission.
Highlights
Online college education has been growing rapidly, in terms of the number of students enrolled in online courses and the number of courses offered, and in the number of fully online degree programs
Statistical analysis of the differences between inperson and online populations shows that the proportion of BLNP students between the in-person and online biology program is not statistically different (X2(1) = 0.00, p = .95), while the proportions of women (X2(1) = 233.76, p < .001), first-generation students (X2(1) = 62.21, p < .001), and Pell eligible students (X2(1) = 75.27, p < .001) are each significantly higher online compared to in-person (Fig 1)
Among the students with social identities that are historically underrepresented in STEM, we found that all except BLNP students are enrolled in higher proportions in the online biology degree program compared to the equivalent in-person biology degree program
Summary
Online college education has been growing rapidly, in terms of the number of students enrolled in online courses and the number of courses offered, and in the number of fully online degree programs. Because fully online education removes many of the constraints imposed by a brick and mortar location, it has enormous potential to increase access to students who may otherwise not be able to pursue a college degree [3]. Online education could increase access for higher education for students who live in education deserts. Asynchronous online education could provide college access for students with severe time constraints that necessitate a flexible course schedule, such as students who serve as primary caregivers (which are often women with childcare responsibilities) and those students who are seeking a degree while working a full-time job. Students in fully online degree programs are more likely to be women, older than students attending a 4-year residential college, and eligible to receive federal financial aid (e.g., Pell grants), they are as or more likely to be white [10,11,12,13,14,15]
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