TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Basu, Arnab K.
AU  - Chau, Nancy H.
AU  - Wang, Yudi
        TI  - On Grade Option Choice and Grade Performance Expectation When Instruction Goes Virtual – The Role of Peers at a Distance
        PY  - 2025/Jan/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17599
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp17599
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade option
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - distance education
KW  - learning outcomes
        ER  -