The Impact of Supplementary On-Line Resources on Academic Performance: A Study of First-Year University Students Studying Economics

The research is financed by the University of Western Australia and the authors which to thank the University for data provision. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 12th Pacific Rim First-Year in Higher Education Conference and the authors ’ wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of the conference participants and thank Phil Hancock for comments. The findings in this paper should be attributed to the authors and not the University of Western Australia. This paper examines the impact of supplementary web-based materials on students ’ academic performance in a first-year economics unit at university. In particular, the paper considers the impact of students ’ usage of the unit’s webpage, voluntary on-line discussion board, voluntary on-line quizzes and voluntary on-line homework questions on their final mark in the first-year economics unit. It finds that students who make use of on-line materials perform better in the unit than students who do not, holding prior academic ability constant. The paper also finds that students ’ usage of on-line supplementary materials does not vary according to their academic ability