In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic induced a rapid shift to online education. Before, cooperative learning has been demonstrated to surpass lecture-based learning (LBL) regarding students’ learning processes; therefore, the question arises as to whether the perks of cooperative learning (in terms of good teaching, satisfaction, and performance) still hold when switching to online education. A quasi-experiment in an undergraduate advanced accounting course compared a non-COVID-19-affected semester to a COVID-19-affected semester for the tutorials. Quantitative survey data (N = 455) indicate TBL outperforms LBL, even when switching to online tools. Good teaching was perceived as even better in the COVID-19-affected semester, and even more so by students in the team-based setting, compared to the lecture-based setting. Students’ course satisfaction and performance were unaffected by the switch to online education. This paper shows that cooperative learning still benefits students, even in a blended environment.
Blondeel, E.; Everaert, P.; Opdecam, E. (2021). And Then There Was COVID-19: Do the Benefits of Cooperative Learning Disappear When Switching to Online Education? Sustainability 13, 12168.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112168
