We use unique data from seven intermediate economics courses taught at four R1 institutions to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning. Because the same assessments of course knowledge mastery were administered across semesters, we can cleanly infer the impact of the unanticipated switch to remote teaching in Spring 2020. During the pandemic, total assessment scores declined by 0.2 standard deviations on average. However, we find substantial heterogeneity in learning outcomes across courses. Course instructors were surveyed about their pedagogy practices and our analysis suggests that prior online teaching experience and teaching methods that encouraged active engagement, such as the use of small group activities and projects, played an important role in mitigating this negative effect. In contrast, we find that student characteristics, including gender, race, and first-generation status, had no significant association with the decline in student performance in the pandemic semester.

我们使用来自四家 R1 机构教授的七门中级经济学课程的独特数据来检验 COVID-19 大流行对学生学习的影响。由于跨学期进行了相同的课程知识掌握情况评估，因此我们可以清楚地推断出 2020 年春季意外切换到远程教学的影响。在大流行期间，总评估分数平均下降了 0.2 个标准差。然而，我们发现跨课程的学习成果存在很大的异质性。对课程讲师的教学实践进行了调查，我们的分析表明，先前的在线教学经验和鼓励积极参与的教学方法（例如使用小组活动和项目）在减轻这种负面影响方面发挥了重要作用。相比之下，