Semester Course Load and Student Performance
- 18 October 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Research in Higher Education
- Vol. 62 (5), 623-650
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-020-09614-8
Abstract
Many college students in the United States take longer than four years to complete their bachelor’s degrees. Long time-to-degree can increase higher education costs by billions. Time-to-degree can be reduced if students take more credits each term. While academic momentum theory suggests that additional credits may also improve student performance, and there is a strong positive correlation between course load and student performance, high course load may reduce time investment in each course, giving high course load a negative causal effect on performance. Concern about the negative impact of course load on performance, especially for struggling students, may lead to pushback against policies to reduce time-to-degree by increasing course load. Using longitudinal data from a regional four-year university with a high average time-to-degree, we find no evidence that high course loads have a negative impact on student grades, even for students at the low end of the performance distribution. This result is consistent with a model where students substitute time away from non-education activities when their course loads increase.Keywords
Funding Information
- California State University, Fullerton
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