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We are seeing a push towards offering more courses online because they can provide students with new forms of social and learning interaction, widen their access to education, and offer an indi­vidualized learning experience in large classes. Little research exists examining how students transfer between online and on-cam­pus courses and what effects this has on students’ academic success. Research thus far has investigated the design of online courses, reten­tion rates, and the efficacy of new technologies in terms of learning outcomes and student perception (see Beard, Harper and Riley, 2003; Diaz and Cartnel, 1999; Dutton, Dutton and Perry, 2002; Schulze, Lieb­scher and Su, 2004; Felix, 2008; Lee and Choi, 2010; Kruger-Ross and Waters, 2013). We analyzed student data from language courses with online and on-campus counterparts, to better understand the extent to which online learning enables students to meet their intended learning outcomes. Our goals were to establish how the medium of learn­ing (online vs. classroom) impacts an individual stu­dent’s academic success in these courses and in subsequent upper-year courses in the language program, to identify patterns in the students’ transitioning between online and on-campus courses, and to gather evidence-based information about students’ course choices and their decisions online vs. on-campus.We conducted a statisti­cal analysis of student data from three early university language courses offered both online and on-campus from the spring term 2004 to the winter term 2014.

Data from other higher-level courses provided us with evidence as to which stu­dents continue their language studies successfully. In addition, we conducted a qualitative analysis of surveys (n=157) and interviews (n=23) with students currently enrolled in the program. While the statistical data provided a birds-eye view of student trajectories over ten years, the surveys and interviews gave us in-depth information about individual learning trajectories and students’ curricular decisions. We gratefully acknowledge the funding of this project through a LITE seed grant.

The talk is organized through collaboration by the Centre for Teaching Excellence, the Centre for Extended Learning, the À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Centre for German Studies, and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies.