66 - Flexible Deadlines: Can They Help Bridge the Achievement Gap?

Poster Board Number: 66
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : There is a growing population of non-traditional students participating in higher education. Community colleges must focus on the retention of students for their funding, flexible deadlines allow students to have more control over their schedules making staying in school more accessible. This study evaluated how southeastern Louisiana community college courses implementing flexible deadlines impacted student grades. Four pre-health anatomy and physiology classes were included in the study (n= 55 students). The four classes (two laboratory and two lecture courses) were taught by the same instructor, and one lecture and one lab course were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. The experimental groups were given flexible deadlines for homework and could choose the date of their exams (within a four-day range). The control groups were given weekly deadlines for all assignments and had to take the exams during their scheduled course time and day. Student exam scores were compared using independent t-tests and covariates were assessed using ANCOVAs, qualitative survey results were also gathered. Flexible deadlines are something that is not commonly offered in science courses because of the perception of equity to all students. The results of this study demonstrate that flexible deadlines do not provide students with a significant academic advantage when compared to students who have structured deadlines. However, our study highlighted that the benefit of flexible deadlines gave students more ownership over their education.