Bridging the gap: Holistic contexts and student success in online two-year composition instruction

This case study examines factors that significantly affect student success in online first- and second-year composition at an open-access community college and, in doing so, contributes to scholarship on online composition and student success by empirically linking community and communication through high-context communication and students’ holistic contexts to indicators of academic outcomes and validating experiences. The study analyzes 175 participant responses to five low-stakes check-in assignments designed around the course-level concept of servingness. Eighty-one patterns identified in earlier research were grouped into 14 factors from which variables were derived. These, combined with check-in responses, course grades, course, sex, ethnicity, and race, yielded a total of 27 variables for quantitative analysis. Using chi-square tests (alpha = .10) and multiple correspondence analysis, 15 of 27 variables showed significant associations with course grades. Positive associations with academic growth, peer interaction, instructor engagement, inclusion, course design, and college resources aligned with higher check-in completion and higher grades; negative associations aligned with lower check-in completion and lower grades. Background characteristics, specifically course (English 1010/2010), ethnicity (Hispanic/Non-Hispanic), and race (White/Non-White), also showed significant associations with course grades. Results suggest that academic outcomes and validating experiences must be evaluated together to inform strategies that support both academic achievement and students’ racial and cultural ways of knowing. Future research should examine how targeted, low-stakes assignments and high-context communication practices operate across institutions and student groups, including longitudinal analyses that track how community, communication, and access to college resources interact with student success over time.