This study was an effort to fill a gap in the research about why there are higher drop-out rates for students in online classrooms than students in traditional classrooms. Educators and administrators at online higher education institutions need information with which to address drop-out rates because the decreased number of completed online courses leads to an overall loss of revenue and resources for online schools and a less than full educational experience for the learners. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive research study was to describe how student leadership characteristics relate to course delivery methods for community college students taking online courses. Five specific leadership characteristics were assessed with the application of a standardized student leadership questionnaire; the Student Leadership Practices Inventory created by J. M. Kouzes and B. Z. Posner. The questionnaire was administered to a sample population of approximately 500 students attending an entry-level computer course at a local urban community college. Although the research questions were not found to be statistically significant, there is potential benefit in future research that builds on the data gathered here. It was necessary to change the original research questions due to privacy issues at the community college. The questions were changed from those attempting to link student leadership characteristics with student completion scores to new questions that compared student leadership characteristics with various demographic characteristics and course delivery methods. Future research may provide evidence that student leadership characteristics play a part in the success or failure of a student’s ability to pass online courses successfully, especially if student completion scores can be accessed and matched to those characteristics.