The Effect of Choice on Student Performance in Online Graduate Classes

Abstract

There has been a steady growth in the use of online instruction in higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased both the need for and the use of this technology when schools were shut down, further establishing online learning as a viable educational platform for higher education. Many online higher education courses rely heavily on reading textbooks, articles, or both, where students complete assignments and quizzes to demonstrate their knowledge of the presented material. Instructors often require students to complete activities to provide evidence that they have read the assigned materials. There is limited research on the extent to which assignments lead to the best student performance. The current study examined quiz scores after students completed either study questions or reading summaries. Instructors provided students with choices on which assignments to complete during some weeks and quiz scores were compared with weeks when students were not given a choice of assignments. Results showed that there were higher quiz scores in the weeks when students were given a choice of assignments. There was no difference in quiz scores across the types of assignments. Results are discussed in terms of embedding more choice into graduate-level online classes.