**3. Purpose and research questions**

The purpose of this research is to describe the experiences of low income and working adult students who are enrolled in online undergraduate study. The research frames the experience in four segments: environment, pre-enrollment experiences, in-course experiences, and personal impact. The research questions guiding this work are:

	- a. Why do these students decide to pursue online undergraduate study?
	- b. How do these adult students prepare for online study?
	- c. How do these adult students finance their online study?
	- a. How do these students describe their teacher interactions?
	- b. How do these students describe their peer interactions?
	- c. How do these students describe their course content interactions?
	- d. How do these students describe their institution interactions?
	- a. How has studying online shaped their perspectives of what it takes to be a successful online learner?
	- b. How has studying online impacted their lives?
