Testing the Grades - Study on the Impact of Online Education during COVID-19 on Student Grades

Abstract: This study explores the relationship between online education and student grades at Lund University School of Economics and Management (LUSEM) during the COVID-19 pandemic. By investigating the learning environment's impact on student grades in this setting, we can take advantage of the recommendations of online education in higher education in Sweden, which resulted in an unprecedented sample size of student grades. We explore unique data on student grades from Ladok, covering data on the majority of LUSEMs departments and largest courses. The estimates portray ambiguous results of how online education has impacted student grades, where different groups and levels of studies have been affected differently. Several methodological approaches have been applied to the dataset to explore multiple nuances of the online learning environment's impact on student grades, including the non-parametric Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Ordinary Least Squares and Difference-in-Difference estimations. Moreover, we use Regression Discontinuity Design to visualize how the grades have changed during online education.