%0 Report
        %A Basu, Arnab K.
%A Chau, Nancy H.
%A Wang, Yudi
        %T On Grade Option Choice and Grade Performance Expectation When Instruction Goes Virtual – The Role of Peers at a Distance
        %D 2025
        %8 2025 Jan
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 17599
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp17599
        %X Campus closures due to COVID19 created uneven student-level exposures to the challenges of home-based virtual learning. Using university administrative data, and exogenous class-level differences in pre-pandemic on-campus housing assignments for parallel trend validation, this paper unpacks student-by-course variations in grade expectations using within-semester switches in grade option choice as a lens. We find causal evidence that distance from campus and internet access affected grade option choices in select student groups (female, non-URM, non-STEM). By tracking access to friends at the student-course level using administrative records, we find that within-class peer support can offset learning challenges even in virtual environments.
        %K satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade option
%K COVID-19
%K distance education
%K learning outcomes