The University of West Georgia has been tracking course completion rates in online
courses versus non-online courses, since Fall 1998. Over time, the data fields have
changed slightly, aggregating partially online courses with fully online courses in
the early years but not in more recent years.
Across time, there appears to be no significant difference in completion rates for
online versus non-online courses. During some terms, online course completion rates
were higher and in other terms they were only slightly lower.
UWG's own homegrown online course rates were disaggregated from USG eCore online course
data. Before UWG took over administration of USG eCore, in FY09, completion rates
were much lower. Since UWG took over USG eCore admin services, completion rates in
online eCore courses have continued to climb and remain stable.
The following two files include file grades of (A B C D F U) in the "completed" category,
(W, WF, WM) are in the "withdrew" category and all others are grouped together. The
'completion rate' basically only indicates that the student did not withdraw from
the course.
Online vs Non-Online Retention Data (XLSX- 29.5KB) (Fall 1998 - Spring 2018)
Online vs Non-Online Retention Data (PDF- 122KB) (Fall 1998 - Spring 2018)
The following two files represent similar data as above, but displayed in a slightly
different manner. They provide groupings and percentages of grades by Successful (A
B C S) and Unsuccessful (D F W WF U) and all others.
Online vs Non-Online Retention Data NEW Format (XLSX- 4.7MB) (Summer 2016 - Spring 2018)
Online vs Non-Online Retention Data NEW Format (PDF- 28KB) (Summer 2016 - Spring 2018)
Online vs Non-Online Retention Data NEW Format (PDF- 28KB) (Summer 2016 - Spring 2018)