Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/236387 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14356
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
COVID-19 shifted schools and colleges to online instruction with little causal evidence of outcomes. In the fall of 2020, we randomized 551 West Point students in a required Introductory Economics course across twelve instructors to either an online or in-person class. Final grades for online students dropped by 0.215 standard deviations; a result apparent in both assignments and exams and largest for academically at-risk students. A post-course survey finds that online students struggled to concentrate in class and felt less connected to their instructors and peers. We find that the shift to online education had negative results for learning.
Subjects: 
online learning
COVID-19
randomized control trial
JEL: 
I21
I23
H75
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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