Did Covid-19 change students’ grade assessments? A study from a business school

Abstract

COVID-19 gave universities and colleges no choice. They had to switch to digital teaching and introduce home-based exams as a substitute for ordinary school exams. At the same time, the ambitions were to maintain the student’s learning outcomes and ensure the exam grade measured the students’ knowledge and skills. With data from a Norwegian business school, this paper will analyse if home based exams provide other results than traditional school exams with closed books. The chosen method is to compare achievements before and during the pandemic and link the performance to academic skills in other subjects and from upper secondary school. The results suggest that the measurement of grades changed under COVID-19. This applies to the quantitatively oriented subjects and the non-quantitative oriented subjects. This is useful knowledge since students’ grades are used for ranking for further studies and professional careers.