IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/edfpol/v11y2016i4p426-448.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Educational Impact of Online Learning: How Do University Students Perform in Subsequent Courses?

Author

Listed:
  • John M. Krieg

    (Department of Economics Western WashingtonUniversity Bellingham, WA 98225-9074)

  • Steven E. Henson

    (Department of Economics Western Washington University Bellingham, WA 98225-9074)

Abstract

Using a large student-level dataset from a medium-sized regional comprehensive university, we measure the impact of taking an online prerequisite course on follow-up course grades. To control for self-selection into online courses, we utilize student, instructor, course, and time fixed effects augmented with an instrumental variable approach. We find that students’ grades in follow-up courses can be expected to be nearly one twelfth of a grade point lower if the prerequisite course was taken online. These results are robust to self-selection into online courses and into subsequent course enrollment.

Suggested Citation

  • John M. Krieg & Steven E. Henson, 2016. "The Educational Impact of Online Learning: How Do University Students Perform in Subsequent Courses?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(4), pages 426-448, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:11:y:2016:i:4:p:426-448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_00196
    Download Restriction: Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard K. Crump & V. Joseph Hotz & Guido W. Imbens & Oscar A. Mitnik, 2009. "Dealing with limited overlap in estimation of average treatment effects," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 96(1), pages 187-199.
    2. Guido W. Imbens, 2015. "Matching Methods in Practice: Three Examples," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 373-419.
    3. Di Xu & Shanna S. Jaggars, 2014. "Performance Gaps between Online and Face-to-Face Courses: Differences across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 85(5), pages 633-659, September.
    4. Xu, Di & Jaggars, Shanna Smith, 2013. "The impact of online learning on students’ course outcomes: Evidence from a large community and technical college system," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 46-57.
    5. Greene, W., 2001. "Estimating Econometric Models with Fixed Effects," New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires 01-10, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-.
    6. Rouse, Cecilia Elena, 1995. "Democratization or Diversion? The Effect of Community Colleges on Educational Attainment," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 217-224, April.
    7. David Figlio & Mark Rush & Lu Yin, 2013. "Is It Live or Is It Internet? Experimental Estimates of the Effects of Online Instruction on Student Learning," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(4), pages 763-784.
    8. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dinarte-Diaz, Lelys & Ferreyra, Maria Marta & Urzua, Sergio & Bassi, Marina, 2023. "What makes a program good? Evidence from short-cycle higher education programs in five developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Kameshwari Shankar & Punit Arora & Maria Christina Binz-Scharf, 2023. "Evidence on Online Higher Education: The Promise of COVID-19 Pandemic Data," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 48(2), pages 242-249, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeffrey Smith & Arthur Sweetman, 2016. "Viewpoint: Estimating the causal effects of policies and programs," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(3), pages 871-905, August.
    2. Marigee Bacolod & Stephen Mehay & Elda Pema, 2018. "Who succeeds in distance learning? Evidence from quantile panel data estimation," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(4), pages 1129-1145, April.
    3. Donna Feir & Kelly Foley & Maggie E. C. Jones, 2021. "The Distributional Impacts of Active Labor Market Programs for Indigenous Populations," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 216-220, May.
    4. Wagener, Andreas & Zenker, Juliane, 2015. "Stochastic Transfers, Risky Investment and Incomes: Evidence from an Income Guarantee Program in Thailand," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-562, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    5. Koch, Nicolas & Basse Mama, Houdou, 2019. "Does the EU Emissions Trading System induce investment leakage? Evidence from German multinational firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 479-492.
    6. Yuta Kikuchi & Ryo Nakajima, 2016. "Evaluating Professor Value-added: Evidence from Professor and Student Matching in Physics," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2016-002, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    7. Daniel S. Hosken & Luke M. Olson & Loren K. Smith, 2018. "Do retail mergers affect competition? Evidence from grocery retailing," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 3-22, March.
    8. Cassandra M.D. Hart & Elizabeth Friedmann & Michael Hill, 2018. "Online Course-taking and Student Outcomes in California Community Colleges," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 13(1), pages 42-71, Winter.
    9. Huan Li & Neha Khanna & Martina Vidovic, 2018. "The effects of third party certification on voluntary self-regulation of accidents in the U.S. chemical industry," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 327-356, June.
    10. Justin C. Ortagus, 2018. "National Evidence of the Impact of First-Year Online Enrollment on Postsecondary Students’ Long-Term Academic Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(8), pages 1035-1058, December.
    11. Nick Huntington-Klein & James Cowan & Dan Goldhaber, 2017. "Selection into Online Community College Courses and Their Effects on Persistence," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 58(3), pages 244-269, May.
    12. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2018. "Approximate residual balancing: debiased inference of average treatment effects in high dimensions," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 80(4), pages 597-623, September.
    13. Wagener, Andreas & Zenker, Juliane, 2018. "Decoupled but not neutral: The effects of stochastic transfers on investment and incomes in rural Thailand," TVSEP Working Papers wp-008, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics, Project TVSEP.
    14. Caloffi, Annalisa & Freo, Marzia & Ghinoi, Stefano & Mariani, Marco & Rossi, Federica, 2022. "Assessing the effects of a deliberate policy mix: The case of technology and innovation advisory services and innovation vouchers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    15. Joyce, Ted & Crockett, Sean & Jaeger, David A. & Altindag, Onur & O'Connell, Stephen D., 2015. "Does classroom time matter?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 64-77.
    16. Emilie Dargaud & Frédéric Jouneau-Sion, 2019. "The good MOOC and the universities," Working Papers halshs-01996582, HAL.
    17. Sloczynski, Tymon, 2020. "Interpreting OLS Estimands When Treatment Effects Are Heterogeneous: Smaller Groups Get Larger Weights," IZA Discussion Papers 13283, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Benjamin T. Skinner, 2019. "Making the Connection: Broadband Access and Online Course Enrollment at Public Open Admissions Institutions," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(7), pages 960-999, November.
    19. Benjamin Lu & Eli Ben-Michael & Avi Feller & Luke Miratrix, 2023. "Is It Who You Are or Where You Are? Accounting for Compositional Differences in Cross-Site Treatment Effect Variation," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 48(4), pages 420-453, August.
    20. M Paula Cacault & Christian Hildebrand & Jérémy Laurent-Lucchetti & Michele Pellizzari, 2021. "Distance Learning in Higher Education: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment [A Randomized Assessment of Online Learning]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 2322-2372.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:11:y:2016:i:4:p:426-448. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kelly McDougall (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.