THE GENDER GAP IN ONLINE LEARNING

Abstract

The adoption of online education comes in two popular formats: purely online learning and blended learning. Although the adoption of online education is not a new concept, existing literature has yet to come to a consensus whether they are as effective as traditional classroom instruction. Moreover, the conventional view that females are disadvantaged in an online environment is constantly challenged by other researchers. Some authors also assert that there are no significant gender differences in the online sphere, be it learning or student achievement. As such, this paper adopts experimental dataset from a randomized study in higher education to answer the question: Is online education equally effective relative to regular face-to-face learning, irrespective of gender? The results of this research suggest that overall student outcomes are significantly worse but male students generally outperform their female counterparts in an online environment.