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Muddying the waters: How grade distributions change when university exams go online

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Montolio

    (Universitat de Barcelona & IEB)

  • Zelda Brutti

    (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Unit S.3 - CC-ME)

Abstract

We analyse how grade distributions change when higher education evaluations transition online and disentangle the mechanisms that help to explain the change observed in students' results. We leverage administrative panel data, survey data and data on course plans from a large undergraduate degree at the University of Barcelona. We show that grade averages increase and their dispersion reduce. Changes are driven by students from the lower end of the performance distribution and by a reduction in the occurrence of fail grades; however, we do not find evidence for artificial `grade adjusting' to explain the phenomenon. We are also able to dismiss shifts in the composition of test takers, improvements in teaching quality or in learning experiences and increases in student engagement. While changes in the assessment formats employed do not appear to mediate the causal relationship between online evaluation and higher grades, we identify more dispersed evaluation opportunities and increased cheating as explanatory factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Montolio & Zelda Brutti, 2024. "Muddying the waters: How grade distributions change when university exams go online," Working Papers 2024/03, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    • Handle: RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2024-03
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    File URL: https://ieb.ub.edu/ca/publication/2024-03-muddying-the-waters-how-grade-distributions-change-when-university-exams-go-online/
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Higher Education; Online Education; Online Assessment; Administrative Data; Survey Data; Covid;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

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