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Get Rich or Fail Your Exam Tryin': Gender, Socioeconomic Status and Spillover Effects of Blended Learning

Mehic, Adrian LU and Olofsson, Charlotta LU (2021) In Working Papers
Abstract
We evaluate a natural experiment at a Swedish university, in which students were randomized to either taking all their courses online, or to have some courses online and some on campus (blended learning). Our setting creates two groups for the online courses: One group with no access to campus whatsoever, and one group treated with campus classes in parallel, but unrelated, courses. We show that campus access in parallel courses improved grades in online courses only among female students with affluent parents. Detailed individual-level survey data suggests that there was no relationship between socioeconomy and adverse mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, by estimating each student's network position, linked with... (More)
We evaluate a natural experiment at a Swedish university, in which students were randomized to either taking all their courses online, or to have some courses online and some on campus (blended learning). Our setting creates two groups for the online courses: One group with no access to campus whatsoever, and one group treated with campus classes in parallel, but unrelated, courses. We show that campus access in parallel courses improved grades in online courses only among female students with affluent parents. Detailed individual-level survey data suggests that there was no relationship between socioeconomy and adverse mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, by estimating each student's network position, linked with administrative data on parental income, we show that female students with wealthy parents have significantly less constrained social networks, enabling them to utilize scarcely available campus time to communicate with classmates more efficiently. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
COVID-19, blended learning, online education, social networks, I23, I28, J16, Z13
in
Working Papers
issue
2021:8
pages
62 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
cbf6690b-e0d8-4220-b5b2-80d4110ec865
date added to LUP
2021-05-19 10:19:19
date last changed
2024-03-14 14:43:10
@misc{cbf6690b-e0d8-4220-b5b2-80d4110ec865,
  abstract     = {{We evaluate a natural experiment at a Swedish university, in which students were randomized to either taking all their courses online, or to have some courses online and some on campus (blended learning). Our setting creates two groups for the online courses: One group with no access to campus whatsoever, and one group treated with campus classes in parallel, but unrelated, courses. We show that campus access in parallel courses improved grades in online courses only among female students with affluent parents. Detailed individual-level survey data suggests that there was no relationship between socioeconomy and adverse mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, by estimating each student's network position, linked with administrative data on parental income, we show that female students with wealthy parents have significantly less constrained social networks, enabling them to utilize scarcely available campus time to communicate with classmates more efficiently.}},
  author       = {{Mehic, Adrian and Olofsson, Charlotta}},
  keywords     = {{COVID-19; blended learning; online education; social networks; I23; I28; J16; Z13}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2021:8}},
  series       = {{Working Papers}},
  title        = {{Get Rich or Fail Your Exam Tryin': Gender, Socioeconomic Status and Spillover Effects of Blended Learning}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/177122013/WP21_8.pdf}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}