Virtual Classrooms: How Online College Courses Affect Student Success

Bettinger, Eric; Fox, Lindsay; Loeb, Susanna; Taylor, Eric

doi:10.1257/aer.20151193

Cited by 321 publications

(260 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…1 For-profits also have been major contributors to the emerging market for online education and have driven a rapid increase in online enrollment (e.g., Deming et al 2015). The 23 largest for-profit institutions, owned by publicly traded companies and offering postsecondary degrees entirely online, enrolled more than 1.1 million students in 2012 and accounted for nearly 20 percent of the growth of US bachelor's degrees (BAs) from 2002 to 2012.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study

Deming

Yuchtman

Abulafi

et al. 2016

American Economic Review

198

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We study employers ' The large increase in the US college wage premium since 1980 strongly suggests that the supply of educated labor has not kept pace with its demand (Goldin and Katz 2008; Autor 2014). One impediment is that inflation-adjusted state funding of postsecondary education has stagnated since the mid-1990s and declined substantially in the last decade. The result is higher net tuition and fees for college students in public institutions (Baum and Ma 2014). Somewhat counteracting that trend is a marked increase in the generosity of federal Title IV financial aid. The for-profit sector has taken advantage of federal government largesse, as well as the increased demand for educated workers, to enlarge its presence in the postsecondary education market. For-profit colleges offer highly structured programs at convenient times and formats, and many have argued-at least going back to Freeman (1974)-that the for-profits respond more rapidly to changing employer demands than do public sector schools. For-profit institutions have expanded recently in fast-growing areas such as health and information technology.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study

Deming

Yuchtman

Abulafi

et al. 2016

American Economic Review

198

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“…Bettinger et al () analyze a large database of students enrolled in a major for‐profit college using an instrumental variables strategy to address student selection. The study also controls for all other aspects of the course (class size, syllabi, textbooks, and professor assignment), which often are unobserved in prior studies, and estimates fixed effects for course, term, major, and home campus.…”

Section: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although they find no significant differences in overall student achievement between the two instructional modes, they report significant negative effects of the online format among Hispanics, males, and lower-achieving students (those with low prior GPAs). Bettinger et al (2017) analyze a large database of students enrolled in a major for-profit college using an instrumental variables strategy to address student selection. The study also controls for all other aspects of the course (class size, syllabi, textbooks, and professor assignment), which often are unobserved in prior studies, and estimates fixed effects for course, term, major, and home campus.…”

Section: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some studies find poorer performance for online students (see, e.g., Coates et al 2004;Jaggars 2011, 2013), while others find few or no significant differences between the two instructional modes (Bowen et al 2014;Figlio, Rush, and Yin 2013). Meanwhile, several studies including those that find no overall difference in the effect of distance education, report sizeable differences in the effects of DL across various subgroups of students (defined by race, gender, or ability level), suggesting substantial heterogeneity in the impacts of distance delivery of education (Bettinger et al 2017;Figlio, Rush, and Yin 2013;Xu and Jaggars 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Who succeeds in distance learning? Evidence from quantile panel data estimation

Bacolod¹,

Mehay²,

Pema³

2018

Southern Economic Journal

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This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the distributional effects of distance learning (DL) on academic success, as measured by course grades and completion. Using data of over 1.2 million courses taken by about 200,000 U.S. Navy sailor‐students at more than 1800 U.S. institutions during 1994–2007, we find that distance delivery of education is associated with poorer outcomes. At the mean, DL delivery is associated with 0.19 lower course grade points; however, the mean effect masks the more pronounced negative effects of DL in the bottom two‐thirds of the distribution—where DL lowers grades by as much as 0.8 points. Using variation only among marginal students—those who tend to fail some of the courses that they take, our estimates indicate traditional face‐to‐face delivery is associated with 2.4 times greater likelihood of successful course completion than if it was delivered distant. These findings suggest that targeting DL courses to certain students may be more cost‐effective.

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“…We believe this is perhaps driven by the competing demands of job and school. Other studies have also noted the problem of endurance and motivation among students taking online courses (Bettinger et al ; Xi and Jaggars ). Our results also echo Anstine and Skidmore () that find MBA students taking an online statistics course (more technical) perform worse than students taking an online managerial economics course (less technical).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Distance to Promotion: Evidence From Military Graduate Education

Bacolod

Chaudhary

2018

Contemporary Economic Policy

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Using a unique dataset of U.S. military officers enrolled in graduate programs at the Naval Postgraduate School, we find students enrolled in distance education programs are 19 percentage points less likely to graduate compared to students enrolled in comparable traditional resident programs. Interestingly, distance education students receive a larger proportion of As on their courses. But, they are also more likely to fail and withdraw from their courses compared to their resident counterparts. The negative effects of distance education are worse for students enrolled in more technical engineering programs compared to less technical business programs. Although distance students are more likely to separate from the military after completing their education compared to traditional students, there are no significant differences in job promotion within the military between the two groups. Our results highlight the challenges of designing effective distance education programs in technical fields. (JEL I20, I23)

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Virtual Classrooms: How Online College Courses Affect Student Success

Cited by 321 publications

References 28 publications

The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study

The Value of Postsecondary Credentials in the Labor Market: An Experimental Study

Who succeeds in distance learning? Evidence from quantile panel data estimation

Distance to Promotion: Evidence From Military Graduate Education

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