Using data from roughly 27,800 undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering
and mathematics) majors in the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), this
research examines the relationship between race/ethnicity, gender and non-traditional
student characteristics and online course enrollment. Hispanic and Black STEM majors
were significantly less likely, and female STEM majors significantly more likely, to take
online courses even when academic preparation, socioeconomic status (SES), citizenship
and English-as-second-language (ESL) status were controlled. Furthermore, nontraditional
student characteristics strongly increased the likelihood of enrolling in an
online course, more so than any other characteristic, with online enrollment probability
increasing steeply as the number of non-traditional factors increased. The impact of nontraditional
factors on online enrollment was significantly stronger for STEM than non-
STEM majors.