No Significant Difference Unless You Are a Jumper
Abstract
Numerous studies show there is no significant difference between student performance in online versus traditional courses. Unfortunately, these studies are unable to identify how a given student would have performed in the other format. Our empirical study involving over 550 students (about 250 online and 300 regular classroom students) investigates whether a student who took a course in an online setting would have performed significantly better or worse (where significant is defined as “jumping” in rank order by 2 or more deciles) if he/she had taken the same course in a traditional classroom based setting and vice versa. To create our “jumper” statistic, we form setting specific regressions (i.e., online versus in-class) relating final decile rank in the class to student demographic and learning style variables. We then use the “other” regression to predict how each student would have performed in a different setting. Our results show that nearly one-half of all students would jump 2 or more deciles, with positive and negative jumpers being nearly equal. Our study has significant implications for student advising.
Location
Room 2904
Recommended Citation
Fendler, Richard and Shrikhande, Milind, "No Significant Difference Unless You Are a Jumper " (2012). SoTL Commons Conference. 37.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2012/37
No Significant Difference Unless You Are a Jumper
Room 2904
Numerous studies show there is no significant difference between student performance in online versus traditional courses. Unfortunately, these studies are unable to identify how a given student would have performed in the other format. Our empirical study involving over 550 students (about 250 online and 300 regular classroom students) investigates whether a student who took a course in an online setting would have performed significantly better or worse (where significant is defined as “jumping” in rank order by 2 or more deciles) if he/she had taken the same course in a traditional classroom based setting and vice versa. To create our “jumper” statistic, we form setting specific regressions (i.e., online versus in-class) relating final decile rank in the class to student demographic and learning style variables. We then use the “other” regression to predict how each student would have performed in a different setting. Our results show that nearly one-half of all students would jump 2 or more deciles, with positive and negative jumpers being nearly equal. Our study has significant implications for student advising.
