The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the majority of schools shut as students joined so much of the world in going about their business remotely. The online learning market had been growing for some time already, but this forced transition nonetheless caused concern that it would widen inequalities as poorer students without the means to learn effectively at home would be left behind.
It’s a suggestion that new research from the University of Geneva has some sympathy with. It shows that online courses cause inequalities between gifted and less gifted students to widen by 5%. This gap is largely attributed to differences in behavior and motivation between students.
The researchers monitored nearly 1,500 first-year university students from UNIGE’s Geneva School of Economics and Management, who were each randomly offered online courses to study eight compulsory programs. A control group was not offered the online courses, and each student had the opportunity to attend classes in person if they wished (the data was collected prior to the pandemic).
Widening inequality
The results reveal that the online courses were able to improve the exam results of high-potential students by around 2.5%. For those with learning difficulties, however, the results were not so positive, with a decline of 2% experienced.
“Access to online education seems to widen the gap between gifted and less gifted students,” the researchers say. “That’s a fact that universities around the world need to take note of, as the coronavirus is accelerating the shift to online learning.”
The results suggest that students adopt different behaviors when studying online depending on their learning capabilities. For instance, the best students will often choose to study at home on their own, whereas poorer students tend to prefer face-to-face classes. The researchers argue that this apparent difference creates educational inequalities when online courses are offered.
Covid lessons
With education among the more disrupted aspects of life during Covid, the study also provides some useful lessons for how we might structure education after the pandemic. The results suggest that all students appear to prefer face-to-face classes when possible, with the online option only chosen when things such as illness or bad weather make attending in person difficult.
As such, when classes were offered online, it only reduced participation in person by 8%. It’s an outcome that doesn’t suggest students will want to go purely online after Covid restrictions ease.
The researchers hope that their findings show some of the limitations and implications of online learning and will help institutions ensure that their offering remains inclusive after Covid restrictions are eased.
