The Relationship Between Virtual Exchange and Academic Success among Low-income Community College Students

• In Event: Exploration of virtual space & lessons learned from COVID-19 disruptions

Proposal

Study abroad (SA), credit-bearing academic activities that a student completes outside their institution’s home country, is a high-impact educational practice (HIP). HIPs are expected to improve learning among students through increased engagement, and can be more impactful for underrepresented students, such as those often served at US community colleges (Kuh, 2008; Miller et. al., 2011; Stebleton, 2013; Sweat, 2013). However, SA is a HIP with a legacy of inequity, as most participants are white, female, and socio-economically advantaged. Recent investigations explore the inequitable delivery of HIPs, but more research is needed to guide practitioners in expanding these practices to a broader audience (Greenman et al., 2022; Kommers & Bista, 2021; Whatley, 2021).
Luxton et al. (2022) found that effectively designed SA programs can enhance students’ social experiences by coaxing them to interact with a more diverse peer network. Others have found a strong link between SA participation and improved academic outcomes (e.g., Caldwell, 2020; Nwosu, 2022). However, SA is not accessible to some student populations because it usually carries a high cost and requires a time commitment that may be infeasible especially for low-income students. One potential solution that can bring the benefits of SA to a wider audience is virtual international exchange (VIE), guided international student exchange delivered digitally (Stevens Initiative, 2022).
In this study, we examine the potential relationship between VIE and SA and students’ academic outcomes, namely final cumulative grade point average (GPA) and degree completion, focusing on those who are eligible for Pell funding, a common indicator of low-income status among postsecondary students in the United States. We address the following research questions:

1. What is the relationship between participation in VIE and academic outcomes among Pell-eligible community college students compared to their non-Pell peers?
2. What is the relationship between participation in SA and academic outcomes among Pell-eligible community college students compared to their non-Pell peers?

Initial research on the impact of VIE shows that it can lead to cross-cultural collaboration, increased empathy, and expanded knowledge (Stevens Initiative, 2022). Due to COVID-19, VIE has grown in popularity and is emerging as an accessible alternative to SA (Abel-Kader, 2021). Driven by the hopeful literature on VIE so far, and a commitment to equitable educational practice, we contribute to current research with an exploration of the relationship between VIE and academic outcomes for students of diverse socio-economic status.
Bourdieu’s (1986) cultural reproduction theory speaks to structural inequalities in educational settings, including those observed in global HIPs. A student’s habitus, or social status, and possession or lack of social and cultural capital can enhance or impede academic success (Green et al., 2015; Simon & Ainsworth, 2012). Cultural production theory (Levinson & Holland, 1996) offers insight into VIE’s potential as an accessible HIP for students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. This framework advances socio-cultural reproduction theory accounting for multiple identities including race and gender. This lens helps in understanding underrepresented students, low-income students, and a HIP occurring in a nontraditional setting. Because the cultural production lens positions students as agents of their own learning, we expect that access to a global HIP can empower students to achieve academic success.
In this study, we used administrative data from students enrolled at two community colleges located in the US southeast. Data from entering cohorts spanned five academic years (2016-17 through 2020-21) and included student demographics, their degree program, and whether they participated in VIE or SA. The data also included students’ final cumulative GPA and whether they completed a credential program. The combined dataset from both community colleges contained observations from over 40,000 students. For analyses focused on SA participation, we removed academic years during the COVID-19 pandemic, when SA opportunities were not available. Our final analytic datasets included 41,577 observations for analyses corresponding to VIE participation (N=1,031 participants) and 28,850 for SA (N=72 participants).
Ideally, to explore the relationship between VIE and SA and students’ outcomes, we would randomize students into treatment (VIE or SA) and control (neither experience) groups to produce baseline equivalence prior to analysis. This situation is impossible, so we adopted a propensity score weighting approach to account for differences in observed baseline characteristics (Lewis, 1973; Rubin, 2005). This approach unfolds in two phases. First, a weight that indicates a student’s propensity towards either VIE or SA based on observed characteristics is derived using logistic regression. Second, this weight is used to balance treatment and control groups in linear regression analyses that estimate the relationship between the treatment condition and outcomes. We estimated propensity-score-weighted models three times for each treatment condition (VIE or SA), once for all students, again for students who were Pell-eligible, and finally for those who were not.
Our preliminary analyses (Table 1) estimated a positive association between VIE participation and a student’s final cumulative GPA for all students (an estimated 0.628 increase), students who were Pell-eligible (a 0.643 increase), and students who were not (0.530 increase) (p<.001 in all cases). A similar positive relationship was observed for SA, with estimated increases in GPA of 0.904 for all students, 0.892 for Pell-eligible students, and 0.914 for non-Pell students (p<.001 in all cases). Regarding credential completion, results suggested a similar positive association for both VIE and SA. Specifically, VIE was associated with increases in the probability of completion of 0.127 for all students, 0.126 for Pell-eligible students, and 0.135 for non-Pell-eligible students (p<.001 in all cases). For these same groups, increases in the probability of completion related to SA were estimated to be 0.528, 0.474, and 0.567, respectively (p<.001 in all cases).
These results are promising in that both SA and VIE appear to positively relate to students’ academic success. However, our results suggest that this relationship was consistently greater for SA compared to VIE for both Pell students and non-Pell students. This finding brings up important questions about the accessibility of certain HIPs to some student populations over others and the benefits that these student groups derive through participation.

Authors

• Melissa Whatley, School for International Training Graduate Institute

• Anna Baerman, Sit Graduate Institute

• Kristin Labs, Public Education Foundation