Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Comparing Grades In Online And Face-To-Face Writing Courses: Interpersonal Accountability And Institutional Commitment, David Alan Sapp, James L. Simon

David Alan Sapp

In spite of benefits surrounding distance education programs, many online writing courses suffer from low student completion rates. Student retention has been identified as a concern in a number of studies of online education. We extend this discussion by examining the relationship of assessment of student work to retention, and comparing the grades students receive in online and face-to-face undergraduate writing courses. Our data point to what we call the “thrive or dive” phenomenon for student performance in online writing courses, which describes the disproportionately high percentage of students who fail or do not complete online courses compared to conventional, …