Demand for online teaching – evidence from a survey experiment

Abstract

Online courses and programs provide higher education institutions with cost-effective approaches to serve many students at once. We use data from a vignette experiment conducted within a large-scale survey in Norway to explore how the prospect of more online instruction affects students' motivation, expected learning outcomes, and study progression. We find a negative relationship between the extent of online teaching proposed in the vignette and students' expected outcomes, particularly as online proportions exceed 50%. Our findings contribute to understanding the role of online instruction in higher education, providing empirical evidence on students' preferences and implications of online education models.