Big Data Analysis on Online Learning for K-12 Education: Inequality in Educational Opportunities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic marked a monumental shift in education methods from traditional in-person classes to distance learning. Using data on daily usages of 372 online learning products by students from 176 school districts in the U.S. during 2020, I conducted big data analysis to investigate the impacts of the pandemic on K-12 students’ online learning activities and whether the pandemic has widened inequality in educational opportunities among students. I measured daily online learning activities by two variables: access, the percentage of students in a school district that accessed a given online learning product; and engagement, total page loads of a given online learning product by all students in a district. I found that overall online learning activities (i.e., engagement) increased by 58% in Spring 2020 when all U.S. schools closed; however, the proportion of students who participated in online learning (i.e., access) decreased by 13%, suggesting that some students may lack resources for online learning after schools closed. My analysis on online learning activities of students from different demographics suggests that the pandemic significantly widened the gaps in educational opportunities. Black, Hispanic, and low-income students experienced a greater drop in access and a smaller increase in engagement during school closures. On the other hand, students in districts with more student spending and students in households with greater internet and device availability experienced a smaller drop in access and a greater increase in engagement. My study is one of the first to provide direct evidence on K-12 students’ online learning activities during the pandemic. The result on educational inequality has policy implications for future fund allocation decisions on promoting and supporting accessible online learning.

I. Introduction

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 marked a monumental shift in education methods across the U.S. from traditional in person classes to remote learning, forcing 55 million K-12 students in the U.S. to continue their education while quarantined in their homes [1] . The consequences of such a sudden shift and its unprecedented scale, and the hasty policies put into place by an unprepared government, are important issues that are beginning to be understood.