Time Spent Online and Student Performance in Online Business Courses: A Multinomial Logit Analysis 1

This study examines the determinants of academic achievement in online business courses. As a measure of effort, we use the total amount of time each student spent in the course. We estimate a multinomial logistic model to examine the odds of attaining one grade versus another depending on time spent online, GPA, and some demographic characteristics of students. Our findings suggest that extra effort can help a student move from letter grades F, D and C to grade B, but is less helpful for the move from B to A. For the latter improvement, a high GPA matters the most.

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