The Effect of Learning Modality on Subsequent Courses in the Finance Major: Does Online Learning Impact Student Success?

Abstract

This paper investigated the impact of learning modality of the fundamental finance course on student success in subsequent finance courses. We studied students’ characteristics, learning modality, and learning outcomes in a sequence of finance courses at the Texas Woman’s University from 2013 to 2020. We found students who took the fundamental finance course (FIN1) online performed better in the second finance course (FIN2). This effect was robust after we controlled for year fixed effects and factors considered to influence student performance. To treat the selection issue of choosing to take FIN1 online, we utilized 2SLS and main results still hold.