Academic achievement and dropout of university students from a course in both an online and face-to-face modality

Abstract

The health crisis has generated a rapid expansion of virtuality in higher education; it is even expected that it will maintain a strong presence once the crisis is finished. However, in Peru there is a deep mistrust and negative perception regarding this modality. For this reason, it is necessary to carry out studies that corroborate what has been found in other countries: that there should be no differences in academic performance based on any modality. Nevertheless, a higher dropout rate has been found in virtual courses, when compared with face-to-face courses, and the explanations for this phenomenon are diverse. Taking all this into consideration, this current research aims to determine the effect of a course in virtual modality on the academic performance and dropout of a group of university students from a private university, compared to a group of students in the face-to-face modality. To do this, a quasi-experimental design with post-test was carried out. The results regarding each of the evaluations are varied; however, when considering the final average, no statistically significant differences are observed; in the same way, no differences were observed related to dropout, regarding that this difference was small in both groups. The outcomes are in the same line as those that indicate that the modality itself is not a determining factor in both variables, but rather depend on other aspects such as the teachers’ work as a guide.