Quasi-experimental representative design guided the investigation of an experimental group
(students in CL courses) and a comparison group (students in NCL courses) comparing course learningenvironment factors, learning outcomes, and overall excellence of instruction and courses. Student ratingsof CL courses were significantly higher than NCL courses on learning outcomes (p-value of .007).Additionally, CL courses were significantly higher than NCL courses on 10 of 12 course learningenvironment factors and learning outcomes. Six of these ten variables were significant at the .01 level. Thedifference between student ratings of CL and NCL courses on overall excellence was marginal (p-value of.042). The most significant finding was the impact of course learning environment factors on learningoutcomes and overall excellence of instruction and courses, each with p-values of .000. A large portion ofthe variance in student ratings of learning outcomes (82%) and overall excellence of instruction and courses(88%) could be attributed to the course learning environment factors.