As a lasting impact from COVID, many colleges and universities worldwide, including UWEC, continue to offer online classes to their student bodies. One of the main reasons for this continuation is that online classes are perceived to be more convenient and therefore more desirable to students. This research project aims to find whether or not this perception is reality. Data come from the 2024 Eau Claire Longitudinal Student Survey. Results show that although students like online classes for their convenience, they also feel as if they learn less overall from these classes and therefore do not prefer them. Furthermore, the preference for online courses is associated with barriers to taking in-person classes and with outside work and caregiving responsibilities; however, it is not associated with variables typically associated with non-traditional students, like age and socio-economic status. Surprisingly, preference for online courses is not associated with technology problems or barriers to online learning. We conclude that increasing online course availability would improve educational access but not educational quality; therefore, care should be taken to ensure that increasing online course availability does not decrease educational quality.
