How Students Make Course Enrollment Decisions in an Era of Increased Choice

In 2013, the state of Florida passed Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720), which dramatically restructured developmental education (DE) placement and instruction. Whereas DE was previously required for students testing below established levels on standardized tests, certain students (graduates from Florida public high schools in the year 2007 or later and active duty members of the military-labeled exempt students) now have the opportunity to opt out of these courses and enroll directly into college-level work. In addition, colleges must now provide all students with a wider array of delivery methods for DE courses. We sought to investigate how students are making their enrollment decisions. We distributed the Student Response Survey in the Fall 2014 semester to all first-time-in-college students at two Florida College System (FCS) institutions. Of particular interest to this study were the exempt students, or those with wider course enrollment options, and the importance students placed on 14 factors that possibly influenced their DE course enrollment decisions (i.e. their decision factors).