Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom

By Steve Lohr

A recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

The report examined the comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military.

Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.

“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.

<SNIP>http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/

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Colleges and universities may be over invested in bricks and mortar, and they may be over committed in tenured professorships.

And the democratization of learning is underway.

probably good for basic courses in remedial studies which many students need. Once again it also depends on the motivation of a student - a smart motivated student can do well in any program a slacker is another story. On the other hand - maybe we can get rid of public schools and save tax dollars

There is a difference. ASU has the exact same setup. You go to class and the online resource allows you to submit documents, get online readings and receive emails and messages from your instructor.

But you still have to go to class.

MIT offers all their course material online, but without a degree.

This has been around for years, I don't know why you'd have a problem with it.

The teacher's role in instilling self-discipline, individual motivation, and a will to learn is indispensable in K-12.

On-line learning would be best used under a teacher's supervision in K-12.

But the student should graduate from high school well prepared to continue their education on line for the rest of their life.

While lab courses need to be hands on, there are lots of simulations that can be done to prepare the student for them. Science courses are mostly lecture anyway.

I learned far more by my own reading then I ever did in a high-school classroom.

i'm resisting the urge to post what i really think, since it's probably flamebait.
but i'll try and teach history online and tell you how that works out.

While many attending college do so because they feel obligated to do so. I know from my own experience that I learn more about a subject if I truly want to know about that subject and dedicate my time to doing just that as opposed attending a school or forum. There are many distractions and a more awkward setting. Just my $.02 worth

this summer she took those two course, one took only three weeks and she got a 98 and 94. (chemistry, algebra 2)

what i want to know, she will be attending school in fall, did she actually learn anything in those online course or get great grades that are irrelevant and no good but in visual

they say kids tested higher.

was it thru grades they acquired during the time taking the course. i am suspicious that they are so easy to get thru, they get the grades, but not the knowledge.

You do busy work, turn it in and get an A.

But I learned next to nothing. It's completely pointless if you actually give a damn about the course material.

knowledge be damn i guess.

to suggest algebra 2 and chemistry can be done in such a small amount of time without any help or guidance is ridiculous.

All of my classes are extremely important to my majors.

What was learned?
What skills?
Was it rote memorization? Parroting?

Active learning? Passive?


Was the goal extrinsic on the student's part? Intrinsic?

If history was the topic, did they debate? Did they deal with documents?

Christ in a bucket, this kind of crap must end.

having the professor come in each day and write the next section of his as-yet unpublished text on the board.

Which you'd better write down, sentence by sentence and formula by formula, since you'd need the notes for the open-book exams.

We were like monks in a scriptorium. What a way to learn electronics.

:rofl:

So open book compressed the curve. Woe unto you if you copied a formula wrong, or missed a day, and the topic showed up on the exam. It could really affect your grade.

:evilgrin:

hated open book or T-F

Because students do not make any effort to prepare, since they figure "I'll just get it out of the book," but then they end up frantically thrashing and flailing their way through a big, thick book for the info they need, and they run low on time, panic, and fail.

If you really hate a class, give them an open book exam :evilgrin:

Overall, the kids did not learn the material.. It's the old-school version of teaching to the test..without all the annoying "teaching" part :rofl:

to devote more resources to writing the strategic plan.

Seriously, that's how administrators think, and that's what scares me about online teaching.

I personally think it can work well and can be a real godsend to students for whom the traditional way doesn't work (taking care of sick child, working odd hours, etc.) but when administrators think of online education, they immediately think of it as a way to do things on the cheap. There's a real WalMart corporate mentality in higher ed now, and it's killing us.

and they don't have the money or time to enroll in school, but as an option INSTEAD of class..for kids... um no thanks:)

are pushing it hard, too blinded by the dollar signs in their eyes to see that distance ed is a tool, not college itself.

"The Silk Road"..

I remember the term, from 7th Grade World geography, but not much else, other than it was a main "trading route" from the far east...

While googling one night, I found an interesting map, and followed the link with it, and found myself reading that link from some obscure college in Minnesota (I think), for about 3 hours.. learning about the Silk Road, and following more links..

The web is a wonderful buffet, full of things you never even knew you wanted to know about:)

One of my favorite classroom tools has become Youtube--rather than try to describe something, I can turn on the projector, surf to youtube, and show it to them.

This occurs on take-home exams, as well.

These kinds of tests sure do make Academic Misconduct Committes work extra hard, but it helps point out the cheats who do not deserve a degree.

There's no limit to how stupid people can imagine their teachers to be.

I once had a near-illiterate student turn in someone's M.A. thesis as for 101 research paper, complete with signature page and "submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of..." page.

She was mortally offended that I didn't believe she actually wrote it.

I didn't take a class, though. Well, except one where I paid a grad student to teach me molecular biology via AOL instant messages.

I've been at it for fourteen years now, and have published, and patented a class of drugs. Everything online.

I just can't imagine a "future classroom" of learning silos. Maybe there's some knowledge to be had, but no wisdom to gain from the social interactions and insights from the teacher.

The issue could well be the kinds of students who take the two types of classes.

Most of my online students are older and more self-motivated, They are willing to read an assignment three or four time if that's what it takes, and in an online class, that might be the case.

My face-to-face students, on the other hand, are more inclined to have been in high school a year or two ago, and they tend to sit there waiting to be fed, like little bird with their beaks open, waiting for mama to drop something in. (Thanks, NCLB!)

So it's not hard for me to imagine circumstances in which the online students will do better, but I think that has more to do with the students themselves than with instructional modalities. Generally speaking, older and self-motivated students do better. Period.

But what do I know? I've only been teaching for twenty years.

Oh, the part about too many tenured faculty is bullshit. Even if we move to more online classes, someone has to teach them, and quality suffers when that someone is teaching eight or ten classes in an attempt to cobble together a living.

Unfortunately, college administrators, who are increasingly frustrated corporate execs rather than scholars, think that hiring a vast slave class of "virtual faculty" will allow them to pump more money into their real priority: administration. We are already seeing it.

Some teachers treat the online classes differently than they do traditional classrooms and it's more or less independent learning - they don't even take part in the discussion. I find online classes to be infinitely better when the teacher is actively involved - you get the best of both worlds that way - a great independent learning environment for self-motivated student but also the guidance and knowledge of a teacher who is really committed to the online learning experience. When the teachers are not active participants, I find my classes to me just as posters above described - it takes very little effort to get an "A".

and interaction really is the key.

I make extensive use of the forum feature of the class management software. Every week, there is an assignment that involves posting a journal in the forum and then commenting on three other people's submissions. The students teach each other a lot, which is how any good class should be.

What I don't do is interact with them in that forum, because it really does change the atmosphere when Dr. Authority Figure comes in and starts commenting on people's work in public. Not good.

But I do set up a separate forum where students ask questions about the readings and I respond.

All this works very nicely, judging from the work students turn in. However, I can see how an online class could be a disaster if the instructor does nothing but post a syllabus and administer a couple of tests.

Anyway, not to get into too much detail about the mechanics of all this, but I do agree with you that there has to be some interaction, some sense of community. Doing that is not easy, and given what I know of college administrators, I don't expect them to be too concerned about the quality of the online learning experience. It's all about spending less on teaching and learning for these people.

A well-designed on-line course can be excellent. I've taken a number of them. On the other hand, a poorly prepared, intellectually deficient in-class teacher can be deadly. I've taken a number of those too. Some subjects lend themselves better to on-line courses, such as those in which a lot of facts must be learned. Literature courses, on the other hand, depend on good in-class discussions led by a skillful teacher. In any event, thanks for alerting me to this study.

it's no wonder. online uni cuts cost and gives alternatives and competition. i hate to see real professors suffer and uni experience decline. but it's going to anyway as it gets less affordable.

...spent in school. I spent one hour after school and learned more than the 8 hours i spent in class and this was in the 80's.


The fact is, If you are blessed enough to be a self learner, all but the most exceptional teachers are wasting your time if you are good at that field.

I had to learn history and government from a guy named coach, English from a traumatized college teacher working her way steadily down the ladder, algebra from a certified monotone, and had a computer teacher who cared more about his summer antique business that any of us learning.

Online 'paper mills' are bad, but I can see the utility of some online courses hosted by accredited universities.

Just sayin'.

After all, conflict of interest is a thing of the past, just like racism.

:sarcasm:

Got that right.

Arne Duncan would love that!

sorry

But of course those special interests that have an interest in keeping Education stuck in the Industrial Age decry it as "BS" is knee-jerk fashion. The text-book manufacturers, the teachers unions, the ideologues that wish to use schools for mass indoctrination and social engineering, they are all involved in dismissing and attacking the democratization of learning.

got her degree online.

:scared:

instead of learning.

And that's why kids are graduating from High School barely able to read. :yoiks: