Randomized study at West Point cited: online sections produced lower performance

Dr. Michael Kofed summarized work that used random assignment at West Point to compare online and face-to-face instruction. He said the academy randomly assigned cadets to sections and, because attendance was mandatory, researchers could isolate online vs. in-person effects. "This is their final grade, their problem set grades, a daily homework, and then what I want to say about this is, we told the students upfront that we were not gonna grade them for accuracy. ... because they're online, they are performing at a very deteriorated rate," Kofed said.