Exploring the impacts of instructional modality in introductory statistics

Abstract The academic experiences at colleges and universities were significantly disrupted by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic with notable impacts on student learning, engagement, and success. We explore its effect on academic performance and student interaction at a mid‐sized public institution in the southeastern United States. Data collected from approximately 1500 introductory statistics students between 2019 and 2021 were used to compare student performance before and during the pandemic. During the pandemic, differing modes of instruction were offered, and overall performance on assessments in 2020 and 2021 differed little from performance prior to the pandemic in 2019. However, more absences and academic integrity issues were reported prior to the pandemic. Performance and student interactions varied based on modality, with students meeting face‐to‐face tending to have better outcomes. Finally, we observe that gender, prior academic performance, and prior course loads were the only academic and demographic descriptors distinguishable between which modalities students opted to attend.