The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a dramatic move to online education. Although schools and colleges have returned to in-person classes, student and professor interest in online testing in university contexts remains high, given concerns about testing anxiety as well as the considerably lower administrative costs associated with online testing. The modality of testing may have significant consequences for student performance, learning, and integrity. We vary the modality of testing for midterm exams in two large, introductory courses at a state university. We find that students perform substantially better on online exams, but that the premium largely disappears if never-before-seen questions are used. The online premium for low-performing students is particularly large, exceeding a full letter-grade, which is likely to have considerable implications for course pass rates. These results have significant implications for instructors seeking to gain the logistical simplicity of online testing and the benefits of increased student satisfaction, without encouraging dishonesty in testing.

Covid-19 大流行导致在线教育发生了巨大转变。尽管学校和学院已经恢复面对面授课，但考虑到对考试焦虑的担忧以及与在线测试相关的管理成本大幅降低，学生和教授对大学环境中在线测试的兴趣仍然很高。测试方式可能会对学生的表现、学习和诚信产生重大影响。我们在一所州立大学的两门大型入门课程中改变了期中考试的测试方式。我们发现，学生在在线考试中的表现要好得多，但如果使用以前从未见过的问题，那么这种优势就基本上消失了。表现不佳的学生的在线溢价特别大，超过了完整的字母成绩，这可能对课程通过率产生相当大的影响。这些结果对于教师寻求在线测试的逻辑简单性和提高学生满意度的好处，而不鼓励测试中的不诚实行为具有重大意义。