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Zooming to Class? Experimental Evidence on College Students’ Online Learning during COVID-19
Open accessAbstract
One persistent question in higher education is the efficacy of online education. In the fall of 2020, we randomized 551 West Point students in a required introductory economics course across 12 instructors to either an online or in-person class as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 postcourse survey finds that online students struggled to concentrate in class and felt less connected to their instructors and peers. Our results show detrimental effects for online learning. (JEL A22, I12, I23, I26)
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“On the other hand, our relatively sanguine results for synchronous courses in 2021-22, with modest performance decrements observed in synchronous online courses, contrast with those found by Kofoed et al. (2024).”
From Online Student Performance Under Synchronous and Asynchronous Instruction in California Community Colleges (2026) · cites this paper as Kofoed et al. (2024)
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“Students in synchronous online classes reported poorer concentration on course material and less connection to students and peers (Kofoed et al., 2024).”
From Online Student Performance Under Synchronous and Asynchronous Instruction in California Community Colleges (2026) · cites this paper as Kofoed et al., 2024
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“Some of the best evidence on synchronous course use comes from a randomized controlled study at West Point during the pandemic, which found that students randomly assigned to synchronous online versions of courses had lower course grades than those assigned to face-to-face sections (Kofoed et al., 2024).”
From Online Student Performance Under Synchronous and Asynchronous Instruction in California Community Colleges (2026) · cites this paper as Kofoed et al., 2024
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kofoed, M. S., Gebhart, L., Gilmore, D., & Moschitto, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
- United States Department of the Army (US)
- United States Military Academy (US)
- Venue
- American Economic Review: Insights
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 2024-09-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 324-340
- ISSN
- 2640-205X (ISSN-L)
- 2640-2068
- OpenAlex
- W3161958558
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 25
- FWCI
- 73.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- American Economic Review Insights (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Defense
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Education during COVID-19 pandemic
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Social Sciences › Education › Online Learning Methods and Innovations
- Keywords
- online learning, COVID-19 pandemic, university students, economics education, face-to-face teaching, student performance, student engagement, teacher-student relationship, peer connection, higher education
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