Date of Award
12-22-2010
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
David Cox
Committee Members
Amany Saleh; Diana Williams; George Foldesy; William Allen
Call Number
LD 251 .A566d 2010
Abstract
Students whose parents did not attend college, known as "first generation students," have been studied extensively. Meanwhile, many researchers have examined students taking online courses. However, little has been done to focus on the intersection of these two fields of research - first generation students who take online courses. This study of students enrolled in Arkansas community college online courses focused on the following research questions: (1) What percentage of community college general education online students are first generation (FG) students? (2) How does the demographic background of FG online students compare to non-first generation (NFG) online students? (3) How does the academic status of FG online students compare to NFG online students? (4) How do the educational goals and expectations of FG online students compare to NFG online students? (5) How do the perceptions of self-efficacy and academic engagement by FG online students compare to NFG online students? (6) How do the perceptions of motivation to take online courses expressed by FG online students compare to NFG online students? This study yielded several key findings. First, 47.4 percent of online students fit the definition of "first generation." Demographically, FG students were more to be likely female and had a higher mean age. FG students were more likely to be employed and reported more weekly work hours. Furthermore, FG students were more likely to have dependents and had a higher mean number of dependents. Academically, FG students were more likely to delay entry to college and to have a greater mean delay when one existed. FG students had a slightly lower mean credit hour load and were much more likely to need remedial coursework. Additionally, FG students were more likely to take advantage of orientation programs geared to preparing students for online classes. Regarding engagement and self-efficacy, FG students were more likely to report high time commitment to study and coursework. FG students also reported high importance on faculty interaction. FG students were more likely to list childcare, travel, and work hours as motives while NFG students were more likely to indicate a belief that online coursework would be easier.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Boyett, James Christopher, "Demographics, Self-Efficacy, and Engagement of First-Generation Students Enrolled in Online Community College Classes in Arkansas" (2010). Student Theses and Dissertations. 969.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/969
