An Experiment with Online and Paper Assignments: Grades, Completion Rates and Student Preferences

Darragh Flannery, John Considine and Brendan Kennelly
Additional contact information
John Considine: Department of Economics, University College Cork
Brendan Kennelly: School of Business and Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway

No WP072013, Working Papers from University of Limerick, Department of Economics

Abstract: With the growth of online assignment tools across many courses in higher education, questions remain as to the impact of such tools on student learning and engagement. In this paper we present an experiment that attempts to measure these effects, as well as a survey aimed at gauging student preferences for traditional or online assignment formats. The results of this experiment comparing online assignments with paper assignments are mixed. Students that complete paper assignments get a higher mark. However, students are more likely to complete an online assignment. These conflicting advantages require the educator to make trade-off when determining the assignment format to use. When in doubt the educator might consider using technology as the results of a student survey presented in this paper revealed that the students preferred the online assignments - a result in line with the literature. While the evidence is not conclusive it would appear that the reason for the preference is the ease with which they can complete the assignments.

Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2013-09, Revised 2013-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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https://ul-econ.github.io/RePEc/pdf/ul-econ-wp-2013-07.pdf Revised version, October 2013 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lim:wpaper:072013

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