Presented by Scott Wentland

This study examines two critical questions: How do students perform in online courses relative to face-to-face courses? What factors might lead to students choosing an online course? Over a period of four semesters, students had the option of taking either an online section or a face-to-face section of ECON 319 – International Economics. The two courses were nearly identical. The students even took the same set of exams (in the same room and at the same time). The key difference was that students in the online course were able to view the lectures in a recorded, digital format. This study compares students’ performance on those exams, holding constant a variety of demographic and other factors that tend to predict performance on exams. Regression results indicate that online students did not perform significantly different than their face-to-face counterparts, and certain groups of students were more likely to take online courses.

Scott Wentland is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Longwood University.  He earned his PhD at George Mason University and conducts research in a variety of fields, including real estate, law & economics, and public economics.  He began teaching at Longwood in 2009 and regularly teaches International Economics and Principles of Macroeconomics, along with Managerial Economics for MBAs. Scott currently lives in Chapel Hill, NC with his wife (Kelly), daughter (Holly), and two dogs.