Abstract
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities throughout the world are embracing online learning, often depending on synchronous and asynchronous digital communications. In this paper, we compare the impacts of live online (synchronous) and pre-recorded (asynchronous) lectures on student achievement using a randomized experiment. We discovered that pre-recorded lectures reduce lower-ability students’ academic achievement but have no effect on higher-ability students’ academic achievement. In particular, being taught via pre-recorded lectures as opposed to live online lectures decreased the likelihood of answering exam questions correctly by 1.6 percentage points for students in the bottom 50th percentile of the ability distribution (measured by GPA at the beginning of the semester). Furthermore, being taught via pre-recorded lectures in the starting weeks of the semester compared to the later weeks tended to be more harmful to students’ academic achievement. These findings have important implications for the effective design of education policies.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed negative consequences on the SustainableDevelopment Goals (SGDs) approved by the United Nations in 2015
We contribute to the literature by comparing the effectiveness of live online and pre-recorded lectures on students’ academic achievement using a randomized experiment in a Vietnamese university
Being taught via pre-recorded lectures as opposed to live online lectures decreased the likelihood of answering exam questions correctly by 1.6 percentage points for students in the bottom 50th percentile of the ability distribution
Summary
Development Goals (SGDs) approved by the United Nations in 2015. SGD-4 was created to tackle global education quality. This goal promotes the idea that learners should be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to foster global sustainable development for the benefit of the environment, population, and future generations. In Vietnam, many universities have been pushed to make a rapid transition from traditional face-to-face instruction to online classes since the beginning of the pandemic. Such immediate transition coupled with the inexperience of both instructors and students in Vietnam threatens the quality of its educational system and performance. There is an urgent need for research on different designs in online education to ensure the quality of that education, and progress towards SGD-4 in the country
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