Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advanced Research in Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
A Case Study in How Covid affected Grades for Different Student Demographics
Douglas R. Moodie, Ph.D. and Alison Keefe, Ph.D.
ABSTRACT:
Most people use a course grade as a rough indicator of learning achieved in a course. This investigation looked at the effect of Covid on mean course grades, by teaching method, student demographics, and college. It showed that for different modalities, demographics, and colleges, there is a clear pattern of mean course grade increase in Spring 20, with a slow decline thereafter to above pre-Covid levels. This pattern holds except in the Honors college which had the opposite pattern. The results also show that hybrid courses clearly maintain the highest mean grade level throughout the timeframe. Since the patterns were consistent across modalities, demographics, and colleges, it shows that these metrics don’t affect mean grade patterns. These results may provide a clue that average grades and GPA are not good indicators of student learning. Although GPA is often the only indicator that one has, this study brings into discussion the use of course grades as a measure of learning and how effective it is.
keywords: Covid, Grades, Hybrid, Online, Teaching Methods