New research from Vanderbilt University and Georgia State University highlights significant shortcomings in online credit recovery courses, revealing that these programs often fail to challenge students, allow for cheating, and lack proper implementation policies. The study, currently under peer review, shows that virtual credit recovery classes, which are often used by students who have previously failed a course, are easily manipulated, reuse questions, and fail to engage students at a higher cognitive level.
Key Findings:
- Lack of Challenging Assessments: Carolyn Heinrich, a professor at Vanderbilt University and co-author of the study, notes that the assessments in these courses are not challenging. Many answers can be easily found online, and the questions on retakes are frequently repeated. This allows students to pass tests without fully engaging with the material.
- High Availability of Answers Online: The research team analyzed 1,408 assessment questions from an Algebra I course provided by Edmentum, a leading online learning platform. They found that 90% of the answers could be found online, and 82% of those were correct. This means students could pass tests with minimal learning effort.
- Low Cognitive Demand: The study found that only 5% of the questions required analysis, and only 4% required creating content. The majority of questions required simple recall, failing to promote higher-order thinking skills.
- Repetitive Retake Questions: When students retake assessments, they often encounter the same questions instead of new ones, even though there are enough unused questions available to create entirely new tests.
- State Regulations and Oversight: The paper found that only 14 states have guidelines for online credit recovery, and few require providers to be accredited. New York is the only state with specific policies governing the quality of these courses. The lack of regulation can lead to inconsistent and often inadequate educational experiences for students.
Recommendations:
- Enhanced Oversight and Policies: Heinrich suggests that states could require more rigorous standards and accreditation for online credit recovery courses. States could leverage their influence to enforce minimum standards for what high school students should be learning.
- Improved Assessment Practices: Schools could require online learning platforms like Edmentum to provide student assessment data, ensure that retake assessments do not recycle questions, and implement in-person proctoring to minimize cheating.
- Better Vendor Support: Heinrich advocates for vendors to provide more guidance, training, and support to ensure that online credit recovery systems are used effectively and not merely as a means for students to quickly pass courses without genuine learning.
The study underscores the need for a balanced approach to online credit recovery, one that maintains the integrity and rigor of the educational process while also providing support for students to succeed.
