November 2025

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 nov 2025

Online education took a transformatory shift during the COVID-19 pandemic. Education providers along with students faced many challenges including equipping students with quantitative skills essential for the labor market. Research study, 'Effectiveness of Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Evidence from Chinese Universities' (Authors: Shijie Lu of Notre Dame University; Xintong Han of Laval University in Quebec City; Shane Wang of Virginia Tech; Nan Cui of Wuhan University in China), published in Production and Operations Management 01 July 2025 (SSRN.com), analyzed more than 15329 course records from nearly 7867 undergraduate students across nine universities over four semesters (Fall 2018 to Spring 2020) and compared academic outcomes before and during the transition to online learning. Applying principal component analysis, authors identify four key policy measures that capture lockdown stringency: stay-at-home orders, workplace closures, public transportation suspension, and public information campaigns. Prof. Shijie Lu, says, 'Surprisingly, the undergraduates performed better in math after switching to online classes - improving their scores by about eight to 11 points on a 100-point scale...Contrary to the widespread belief that online education is less effective than face-to-face instruction, our findings show that students actually performed better online, at least in quantitative subjects during the pandemic. This challenges the traditional view that in-person learning is always superior and suggests that, under certain conditions, well-structured online environments can enhance learning outcomes... Our results show that online education when done thoughtfully can be more than just a backup plan during emergencies. It can be an effective tool for learning, especially in analytical subjects... These insights can help schools and governments better prepare for future disruptions — whether from pandemics, natural disasters or other emergencies — by understanding how to balance safety and learning effectiveness.' Read on...

Notre Dame News: Study of higher education during COVID-19 shutdowns shows certain subjects can be better taught online
Authors: Shannon Roddel, Shijie Lu

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