The impact of online learning on students’ course outcomes: Evidence from a large community and technical college system

Di Xu and Shanna Smith Jaggars

Economics of Education Review, 2013, vol. 37, issue C, 46-57

Abstract: Using a large administrative dataset from a statewide system including 34 community and technical colleges, the authors employed an instrumental variable technique to estimate the impact of online versus face-to-face course delivery on student course performance. The travel distance between each student's home and college campus served as an instrument for the likelihood of enrolling in an online section of a given course. In addition, college-by-course fixed effects controlled for within- and between-course selection bias. Analyses yield robust negative estimates for online learning in terms of both course persistence and course grade, contradicting the notion that there is no significant difference between online and face-to-face student outcomes—at least within the community college setting. Accordingly, both two-year and four-year colleges may wish to focus on evaluating and improving the quality of online coursework before engaging in further expansions of online learning.

Keywords: Online learning; Community colleges; Student performance; Instrumental variable analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I23 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:37:y:2013:i:c:p:46-57

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.08.001

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