Student Learning in Online College Programs

We draw on administrative data from the country of Colombia to assess differences in student learning in online and traditional on-campus college programs. The Colombian context is uniquely suited to study this topic, as students take a compulsory exit examination at the end of their studies. We can therefore directly compare performance on the exit exam for students in online and on-campus programs both across and within institutions, degrees, and majors. Using inverse probability weighting methods based on a rich set of background characteristics coupled with institution-degree-major fixed effects, our results suggest that bachelor’s degree students in online programs perform worse on nearly all test score measures (including math, reading, writing, and English) relative to their counterparts in on-campus programs. Results for shorter technical certificates are more mixed. While online students perform significantly worse than on-campus students on exit exams in private institutions, they perform better in SENA—the main public vocational institution in the country.

我们利用哥伦比亚的行政数据，评估在线大学项目与传统校园大学项目中学生的学习差异。哥伦比亚的背景特别适合研究这一主题，因为学生在学业结束时需参加强制性毕业考试。因此，我们可以直接比较在线项目与校园项目学生在毕业考试中的表现——无论是跨机构、学位和专业，还是在机构、学位和专业内部。基于丰富的背景特征集，结合机构-学位-专业固定效应（fixed effects），我们采用逆概率加权法（inverse probability weighting method）进行分析。结果表明，在线项目的学士学位学生在几乎所有考试分数指标（包括数学、阅读、写作和英语）上的表现均逊于校园项目的对应群体。短期技术证书项目的结果则更为复杂。在私立机构中，在线学生的毕业考试表现显著逊于校园学生；但在哥伦比亚主要的公立职业教育机构SENA中，在线学生的表现则优于校园学生。