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Full-Text Articles in Education
Reevaluating Course Completion In Distance Education—Avoiding The Comparison Between Apples And Oranges, Scott L. Howell, R. Dwight Laws, Nathan K. Lindsay
Reevaluating Course Completion In Distance Education—Avoiding The Comparison Between Apples And Oranges, Scott L. Howell, R. Dwight Laws, Nathan K. Lindsay
Faculty Publications
Critics of distance education frequently assert that completion rates are lower in distance education courses than in traditional courses. Such criticism comes despite sparse and inconclusive research on completion rates for distance and traditional education courses. This article reviews some of the existing research and then describes some of the caveats and complexities in comparing completion rates in traditional and distance education. Analysis reveals that numerous factors make comparison between these two formats difficult, if not impossible. Problems include limitations in the research design itself, differences in student demographics, and inconsistent methods of calculating and reporting completion. After exploring these …
Omitted-Ability Bias And The Increase In The Return To Schooling, Mckinley L. Blackburn, David Neumark
Omitted-Ability Bias And The Increase In The Return To Schooling, Mckinley L. Blackburn, David Neumark
Faculty Publications
Over the 1980s, there were sharp increases in the return to schooling estimated with conventional wage regressions. We explore whether the relationship between ability and schooling changed over this period in ways that would have increased the schooling coefficient in these regressions. Our empirical results reject the hypothesis that an increase in the bias of the schooling coefficient, due to a change in the relationship between ability and schooling, has contributed to observed increases in the return to schooling.We also find that the increase in the schooling return has occurred for workers with relatively high levels of academic ability.