Working Paper: NBER ID: w28552
Authors: Stephanie Riegg Cellini; Hernando Grueso
Abstract: 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.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I21; I23; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| SENA (Y60) | outperform on-campus counterparts (D29) |
| selection bias (C24) | affect performance (D29) |
| online programs (C87) | lower test scores (I24) |
| on-campus programs (I23) | higher test scores (C52) |
| online students (Y40) | worse performance on exit exams (I21) |