The Power of Peer Interaction

"A new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that students performed substantially worse, on average, on standardized course assessments at the end of the COVID-19 spring semester than in previous academic terms.

There was no evidence that this was driven by specific demographic groups, meaning that everyone was at an apparent disadvantage as a result of the rapid switch to remote instruction.

Professors' use of active learning methods mitigated some of this negative effect, however. The findings leave the study's authors [including George Orlov, Doug Mckee, Joerg Stoye, Alex Rees-Jones, and Thomas DiCiccio] 'optimistic' about future student learning outcomes even as 'we remain in a period of substantial online instruction.'"

Read the full story in Inside Higher Ed.

More news

View all news
Doug McKee posing in front of McGraw Tower
Top