Advances in technology are helping reshape how students learn, communicate, and interact in higher education; this change may assist universities as they address the developmental course crisis. This study sought to increase understanding of how computer-assisted instruction (CAI) impacted students' perception of their experience in a developmental mathematics course. Specifically, this interpretive phenomenological analysis study was guided by the following question: How do students describe the experiences that helped them persist in their CAI developmental mathematics course during their 1st year? Understanding how students make sense of the experiences that helped them persist to course completion will help support future students. A semi-structured interviewing technique was utilized to collect data from seven participants enrolled at a public urban college in a city in the Northeast. The responses were analyzed using Smith and Nizza's (2021) nine-step process, which moved the understanding of the experience from that of particular individuals to the shared experiences of all participants. Three major themes and 10 subthemes emerged from the responses provided by the seven participants. The findings drawn from the analysis were consistent with the literature and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) theory. Through the lens of ZPD and scholarly work within the field, the study offers recommendations for practice in the following categories: recommendations for institutions offering online courses, recommendations for CAI online courses, recommendations for students enrolled in online courses, and recommendations for faculty teaching online courses. The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]