Classroom Versus Online Assessment

Abstract

The authors examined students’ effort and performance using online versus traditional classroom testing procedures. The instructor and instructional methodology were the same in different sections of an introductory finance class. Only the procedure in which students were tested—online versus in the classroom—differed. The authors measured student effort by tracking the number of times students accessed study resources that had been placed on the university Blackboard course management system, and performance as grades on tests given either online for some students or in the classroom for other students. The results indicate that neither study efforts nor course performance was influenced by the testing procedure. However, the authors did find a strong positive relationship between students’ effort and their performance in the course.