Abstract

With the increasing number of underprepared Hispanic students, there is a need to examine the efficacy of online instructions on their academic success. This quantitative study was conducted to examine Hispanic students’ success in online developmental English courses as compared to face-to-face developmental English courses. Data of 143 Hispanic students enrolled in face-to-face and online developmental English courses were collected over one academic year, Fall 2011 to Spring 2012. Descriptive statistics for the sample was performed, and inferential statistics was conducted to test the hypotheses and answer the research questions. The results of this study indicated a higher passing rate and average score in the face-to-face courses, yet there was no significant difference between the withdrawal rate and course type, which contradicts the current literature. This study adds to the body of literature the significance of online instructions in addressing Hispanic students of developmental English.