Delicate Engagement

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a phenomenological study that examined the lived experience of community college students enrolled in high-risk online courses (HRCs) at a community college in the American Southeast. HRCs were defined as college courses with withdrawal or failure rates of 30% or more. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 students enrolled in four different HRCs. Isolation, academic challenge, ownership, and acquiescence emerged as structural themes that framed the experience of participants. These structural themes intermingled in discrete ways that led to the survival or surrender of these HRC participants and formed the essence of the phenomenon that is referred to as delicate engagement, which speaks to the vulnerable threads of academic and social involvement that permeated the HRC student experience.

African American Males Learning Online: Promoting Academic Achievement in Higher Education

“…Xu and Jaggars (2013) found certain academic subject areas appear more difficult to learn in the online context, and some subjects may require intensive student-instructor interaction. Bambara et al (2009) noted online students struggled learning unfamiliar and complex course materials and Jaggars (2014) observed that college students preferred taking easy academic subjects online and difficult or important subjects face-to-face. Based on the results of this study and findings from other studies, supporting academic achievement, enrollment in information technology courses, facilitating higher education enrollment immediately after high school graduation, and ample online academic support for students learning difficult subjects may promote online course completion among African American male undergraduate students.…”

“…By identifying the backgrounds, competencies, and experiences of successful African American online learners, administrators and educationalists can better predict online course success and circumvent failures by allocating appropriate resources at the proper times. This approach improves online course completion rates and ultimately graduation rates for all African American males so they can enjoy the benefits of higher education (Bambara, Harbour, Davies, & Athey, 2009;Palmer et al, 2010).…”

Diagnosis of the attitudes towards ICT of education students according to gender and educational modality

“…These authors conclude that face-to-face students are more satisfied than distance students. In the same line, Jaggars (2014), Bambara et al (2009) or Young & Duncan (2014) determined that distance students might have lower satisfaction due to less interaction with the faculty. However, some other researches have determined opposite results (Bowers & Kumar, 2015).…”

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status, Course Delivery Method, and Student Success at a State College: A Single Institution Analysis

“…The literature available on the efficacy of distance education through online courses has provided evidence of many factors such as institutional integration, college preparation, faculty contact/support, lack of academic guidance, and time management (Pierrakeas, 2004;Scalese, 2001;Tresman, 2002;Wojciechowski & Palmer, 2005) that contribute to student success but is bereft of information on the role that SES plays in factors like technology literacy, student confidence, or even time management. In fact most of the research done on distance education at the community college has focused on the student learning experience, student satisfaction, and student retention (Bambara, 2009). …”

“…Student enrollment in distance education courses has grown to over 3.2 million students enrolled nationally comprising over 17% of students enrolled in higher education in the United States (Bambara, Harbour, & Davies, 2009). Ninety-six percent of all higher education institutions now provide distance education opportunities for online learners (Allen & Seaman, 2006).…”