Via @novosad.bsky.social on Twitter: Zoom school is worse than real school. I'm surprised that these effects aren't bigger: 0.2 SD is only ~half a semester of learning in a typical rich country. docs.iza.org/dp14356.pdf #econsky 📉📈 - ThreadSky

jkerwin.bsky.social • 524 days ago

Via @novosad.bsky.social on Twitter: Zoom school is worse than real school. I'm surprised that these effects aren't bigger: 0.2 SD is only ~half a semester of learning in a typical rich country.

https://docs.iza.org/dp14356.pdf #econsky 📉📈

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wsandholtz.bsky.social•524 days ago

Hey @mikekofoed.bsky.social they're playing your song over here too

mikekofoed.bsky.social•523 days ago

Don't Stop Believing by Journey?

jkerwin.bsky.social•524 days ago

I'd love to see a comparison with asynchronous "courses" (i.e. a posting bunch of videos to Canvas). #econsky 📉📈

mikekofoed.bsky.social•523 days ago

Thanks Jason!!

forrestf.bsky.social•523 days ago

Presumably in the fall of 2020, West Point instructors had lots of experience teaching in person and no experience with teaching online (and same for students). So this basically seems to be showing that experts are better than novices, not sure how much of the effect can be attributed to online?

jkerwin.bsky.social•522 days ago

It’s conceivable that people could get better at teaching via Zoom. But this answers two key policy questions:
1. Was making students do Zoom school in 2020 bad for learning outcomes? (Yes)
2. Should we try to switch more classes to Zoom? (No, it’s bad in at least the short run)

forrestf.bsky.social•522 days ago

I think 1 is clear (and not surprising). 2 is not clear at all to me. I think 2 could be "professors need to learn how to teach online more effectively". I taught online years before the pandemic and there is lots of research about how to lead effective online classes.

forrestf.bsky.social•522 days ago

In the 2020 scramble, few faculty knew about those resources, and the way alot of classes were transitioned by copying the modality of in-person classes onto Zoom was definitely not an effective strategy.

forrestf.bsky.social•522 days ago

To take the obvious example, when I taught medium-large classes online pre-pandemic, I never tried to get all of my students into a webconference and give a lecture. I pre-recorded my lectures and worked with small groups online.

jkerwin.bsky.social•522 days ago

This study (and the claim I made) is about teaching on Zoom, not other online teaching modalities. It’s pretty clear that teaching on Zoom is just worse than in person.

malcolmwardlaw.info•524 days ago

Wow. Given that these students are from (checks notes) West Point, I suspect this is very much a lower bound.

joshua-goodman.com•524 days ago

I believe this is forthcoming at AER: Insights. It's a very compelling paper.

mikekofoed.bsky.social•523 days ago

Uploaded the source files a few weeks ago.

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