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The purpose of this quantitative, retrospective descriptive study was to investigate the outcomes of online instruction by comparing online and non-online success rates in college algebra courses at the 58 community colleges in North Carolina. The community of inquiry framework served as the theoretical framework to investigate the difference between these success rates. Online course enrollments continue to rise, and research has shown that students in online courses may experience inferior outcomes when compared to students in non-online courses. This study aimed to increase theoretical knowledge of math courses with respect to differences in success based on course modality. Convenience sampling was used to collect the data as all students enrolled in college algebra within the North Carolina Community College System during the fall 2023 semester were used. This produced a sample of 15,939 course enrollments, including 10,454 non-online enrollments and 5,485 online enrollments. A runs test was used to confirm these samples were random, and the Shapiro-Wilk test was used to confirm these samples were normally distributed. Success rates for each modality were calculated, and a two sample Z-test for proportion was used to analyze the difference between these success rates. The effect size of this difference was determined using Cohen’s h. Findings showed that there was a statistically significant difference between online and non-online success rates, with online courses underperforming non-online courses. That difference was small. Future research can focus on determining reasons why this difference exists, investigating teacher and student preparedness for online instruction, and comparing other modalities of instruction.