Self-Selection Bias In On-Line Accounting Courses: Student Characteristics

Abstract

Over the past several years one of my responsibilities as a faculty member of the State University of New York Institute of Technology has been to teach both graduate and undergraduate classes over the internet via the SUNY Learning Network (SLN).  Although the work load for a faculty member teaching an on-line course can be substantial, there is evidence that there are unexpected rewards in terms of the caliber of the students who takes such courses.  Although the characteristics of the students comprising the initial enrollment of the class mirror those of standard “in-person” classes, there seems to be substantial initial attrition among those students who are less motivated to devote the necessary time to the study of the material.  Additionally, the additional responsibility for “active learning” on the part of students appears to motivate many students to a higher level of effort.

This paper provides evidence via ex-post and a-priori surveys, as well as through an analysis of the students’ final grades, that there is a self-selection bias among students that can lead to an overall increase in the caliber of the on-line class relative to the conventional on-campus class.