Policy issues in the teaching of economics in cyberspace: Research design, course design, and research results

More than 50 colleges, universities, and community colleges now offer economics instruction bl cyberspace, and this number is growing rapidly. Despite the implications of this growth for the quality of economics instruction, only a small fraction of those institutions venturing into cyberlearning are doing so in a carefully controlled research environment. This article examines some important research and course design policy issues for institutions seeking to carefully monitor the quality and performance of their online courses. It does so within the context of reporting the course design, research design, and research results of two cyberlearning studies conducted at the University of California. (JEL A10).