Purpose - This paper discusses performance in postgraduate education in Sweden and Scotland. Drawing on two cases, we consider three themes: differences in students´ performance by study mode, differences in students´ performance by length of study, and finally comparing performance by study mode between modules in Scotland with an entire programme in Sweden.
Design/methodology/approach - The empirical setting from Scotland builds on an evaluation of online and on-campus study groups with exactly the same module syllabus. The Swedish setting is also based on an evaluation of distance and on-campus study groups with exactly the same module syllabus. The data compiled in both countries arise from student performance scores and grades
Findings - The results indicate that students in both countries foremost use the VLE as a forum for accessing information, to access asynchronous postings in the forums and access streaming- synchronous online lectures which are also accessed asynchronously in the VLE. The results show that there are no differences between the grades or test scores between campus students with face-toface education and distance students with electronically (VLE) mediated education These differences and similarities will form the basis of these reflections in this paper
Limitations - The study is limited because the examples given are only a few cases and small samples and there is a need to more rigorously investigate different educational programs in different academic disciplines.