We find that students in the traditional format scored 2.3 percentage points more on a 100-point scale on the combined midterm and final. There were no differences between formats in non-cognitive effort (attendance, time spent with online materials) nor in withdrawal from the class.
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Do more lectures improve student performance?
Yes, finds a new experimental study, but the authors interpret the effects as modest in size. One group of students in introductory microeconomics got a lecture twice a week (what the authors call the "traditional" format), and the other group of students got a lecture only once a week. All the students had the same access to online resources and the same wonderful textbook. (You can guess which one.) The results: