The authors examine the impact of a new online learning system on student performance in a core finance course required of all business majors. They find that the online learning system significantly reduces the number of students that withdraw from the course prior to course completion. Additionally, the benefits of a lower withdrawal rate…

A comparison was made of average accounting grades, overall business grade point average (GPA), and overall academic GPA with standardized test scores for general, business, and accounting seniors from 1980-95. Grade inflation did exist at the overall university and business school levels but not in accounting courses. (SK)

A business professor who attempted to improve satisfaction and retention of international students relates how his strategies failed. He argues that students should be judged solely on performance, and pressure to raise grades should be resisted. (SK)

A study that explicitly compared average class grades given by adjunct instructors and full-time faculty over a 2-year period found that, controlling for class size, instructor credentials, subject, and course level, adjunct instructors give higher grades. (Contains 16 references.) (JOW)

Grades from 112 students in 3 business courses integrated in block format were compared with those of 151 other business majors. High achievers did not self-select into blocks. Grading rigor did not suffer and grades were more correlated in block presentation, possibly because of content integration. (Contains 18 references.) (SK)

Relationships between students' grades and their evaluations of instructions were analyzed for 283 accounting students. Students in intermediate accounting who took introductory courses in which the teacher was more highly rated did worse than those from introductory courses in which the teacher was less highly rated. (Contains 38 references.) (SK)

The authors performed a statistical analysis to investigate whether grade inflation existed in the business school at a small private college in the northeast region of the United States. The results showed that grade inflation existed and exhibited a linear trend over a 20-year period. The authors found that grade inflation was related to faculty…

Grade inflation has reduced the usefulness of the Quality Point Average as a hiring device. The Relative Performance Index, which expresses student performance relative to other students enrolled in the same course sections, is proposed as a better tool. (SK)