Online Versus Traditional Course Achievement at a Small Liberal Arts College

The purpose of this study was to compare student achievement and satisfaction in online versus traditional introductory statistics courses. The sample studied were undergraduates at a small liberal arts school enrolled in introductory statistics over a period of six semesters. There were a few significant findings in student achievement in the overall sample and other meaningful results were found when assessing nursing and business majors specifically. Student satisfaction results between the two formats were inconclusive. Future studies on this topic can include hybrid education data in addition to online and traditional to see if there are any differences in achievement or student satisfaction in that population. Another possible study could be done regarding achievement in students who took preparatory training prior to enrolling in an online course.