Are Online College Courses Widening the Achievement Gap?

In this Chronicle of Higher Education article, Jake New reports on a Columbia University study of online courses taken by more than 40,000 community- and technical-college students in Washington state. The researchers found that students who struggled in traditional classrooms had even more difficulty in online courses. “We found that the gap is stronger in the underrepresented and underprepared students,” said Shanna Smith Jaggars, one of the authors. “They’re falling farther behind than if they were taking face-to-face courses.” Those who did less well included African-American students, males, younger students, and those with lower grade-point averages.

Who benefits from online courses? Older students, those who perform well in traditional classes, and those who are juggling studying with raising a family; for them, the difference between the two formats is less pronounced and online courses might make sense. “They might do a little worse, but over all it’s a pretty good trade-off for the easier access,” said Jaggars. 

Kathy Enger, a Minnesota educator who has been involved in online education for a decade, pushes back. She has found that online courses are helpful to minority students because they can speak up without having to worry about “micro-aggression” – snickering and eye-rolling when they speak up in predominantly white classrooms. “There’s more freedom for students to express themselves and feel validated in an online environment,” she says. Enger also believes that if some students are falling behind in online courses, it’s because the professors aren’t using the format to best advantage. “If it’s not working, find out what’s not working,” she says. “Then make it work.”

Jaggars agrees: “We need a lot more teacher training, showing them tactics to use to try and reach out,” she says. “I think it’s difficult for faculty to know how to do that online. Not that they don’t want to. It’s just hard.” 

“Online Courses Could Widen Achievement Gaps Among Different Types of Students” by Jake New in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mar. 8, 2013 (Vol. LIX, #26, p. A12); the original study is “Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas” by Di Xu and Shanna Smith Jaggars, available at:

From the Marshall Memo #476