Teaching and Learning Principles of Microeconomics Online: An Empirical Assessment

How do students enrolled in online courses perform relative to those who choose a more traditional classroom environment? What student characteristics help explain differences in student academic achievement in the two modes of instruction? What factors affect the students' choice of instruction mode? The authors address these questions in relation to the teaching of introductory economics courses. They find that the two groups of students are significantly different in age, gender composition, marital status and number of children, GPA, previous economics exposure, planned major, and other important characteristics. The raw data suggested a higher mean score for the online class sections. But after considering course selection bias, the findings indicated that age and GPA positively affect students' performance in the course, whereas the online teaching mode has a narrowly insignificant, or even negative, effect. Semester effects are most important for the online subsample, and male students enjoy a premium in the traditional classroom setting.

[1]  J. Hausman.  Specification tests in econometrics , 1978 .

[2]  Ping Zhang.  A Case Study on Technology Use in Distance Learning , 1998 .

[3]  Gregory M. Duncan,et al.  The Endogeneity of Union Status: An Empirical Test , 1985, Journal of Labor Economics.

[4]  William B. Walstad,et al.  Differential Item Functioning and Male-Female Differences on Multiple-Choice Tests in Economics , 1997 .

[5]  James R. Layton,et al.  No Significant Difference Phenomenon , 1999, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[6]  William E. Becker,et al.  Teaching economics to undergraduates : alternatives to chalk and talk , 1999 .

[7]  J. Heckman.  Sample selection bias as a specification error , 1979 .

[8]  B. W. Brown,et al.  Can Web Courses Replace the Classroom in Principles of Microeconomics , 2002 .

[9]  David R. Erickson,et al.  A Tale of Two Classrooms , 1997 .

[10]  J. Soper,et al.  What Is High School Economics? Factors Contributing to Student Achievement and Attitudes , 1989 .

[11]  Peter Navarro,et al.  Policy issues in the teaching of economics in cyberspace: research design, course design, and research results , 2000 .

[12]  William E. Becker,et al.  Teaching Economics at the Start of the 21st Century: Still Chalk-and-Talk , 2001 .

[13]  Rajshree Agarwal,et al.  The Impact of the Internet on Economic Education , 1998 .

[14]  J. Siegfried.  Male-Female Differences in Economic Education: a Survey , 1979 .

[15]  Jane S. Lopus.  Effects of the High School Economics Curriculum on Learning in the College Principles Class , 1997 .

[16]  Michael W. Watts.  Student Gender and School District Differences Affecting the Stock and Flow of Economic Knowledge , 1987 .

[17]  C. A. Twigg,et al.  Innovations in online learning: Moving beyond no significant difference , 2001 .

[18]  Guy Judge.  The production and use of on-line Web quizzes for economics , 1999 .

[19]  Constance H. McLaren.  A Comparison of Student Persistence and Performance in Online and Classroom Business Statistics Experiences , 2004 .

[20]  Scott P. Simkins,et al.  Promoting Active-Student Learning Using the World Wide Web in Economics Courses , 1999 .

[21]  Cynthia Harter,et al.  Teaching with Technology: Does Access to Computer Technology Increase Student Achievement? , 2004 .

[22]  P. Navarro,et al.  Performance and perceptions of distance learners in cyberspace , 2000 .

[23]  Robin L. Bartlett,et al.  Efficiency in the Use of Technology in Economic Education: Some Preliminary Results , 2004 .

[24]  Diane Hamilton,et al.  Factors Affecting Student Performance and Satisfaction: Online versus Traditional Course Delivery , 2005, J. Comput. Inf. Syst..

[25]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  Can e-learning replace classroom learning? , 2004, CACM.

[26]  A. Roy.  Some thoughts on the distribution of earnings , 1951 .

[27]  Jeffrey M. Wooldridge,et al.  Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach , 1999 .

[28]  Jane H. Leuthold.  Building a Homepage for Your Economics Class , 1998 .

[29]  Mark O. Evans.  An Estimate of Race and Gender Role-Model Effects in Teaching High School , 1992 .

[30]  R. Mccall.  Fundamental Statistics for Behavioral Sciences , 1986 .

[31]  Jeff Anstine,et al.  A Small Sample Study of Traditional and Online Courses with Sample Selection Adjustment , 2005 .

[32]  Peter Navarro,et al.  Economics in the Cyberclassroom , 2000 .

[33]  P. Schmidt,et al.  Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. , 1984 .