Demographics and Motivation as Predictors of Student Selection of Intensive Course Formats in an American University

The number of students in higher education is growing at an exponential pace. At the same time, colleges and universities must continue to explore methods to increase student satisfaction as well as meet student learning needs. An ever-increasingly popular method is to offer flexible schedules. This study investigates how undergraduate student characteristics influence student selection of either intensive (compressed) or traditional semester-long course formats. The results indicate that student age and current work status have a statistically significant influence, while student major and work experience come close, but do not significantly influence these decisions. Further, student gender, ethnicity, and educational level also have no influence on these student decisions. Our research shows that intensive business courses are more attractive to young students, age 21 to29 with no work experience, and possibly, to business majors or minors. Our study also reports that students enrolled in compressed courses are more motivated, especially maximizing their intrinsic motivation. Our results also suggest that students from intensive courses have a higher effort, competitiveness, and stronger goal focus than students enrolled in traditional course formats.