[Asis-l] Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom

[gerrymck]

Colleagues/

A Wednesday PM (CT) Discovery !!

/Gerry

New York Times / August 19, 2009, 1:08 pm / Updated: 1:29 pm / 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.”
[snip]

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.<<<

[snip]

Until fairly recently, online education amounted to little more than
electronic versions of the old-line correspondence courses. That has
really changed with arrival of Web-based video, instant messaging and
collaboration tools. The real promise of online education, experts
say, is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to
individual students than is possible in classrooms. That enables more
“learning by doing,” which many students find more engaging and
useful.

[more]

Links to the original NYTimes article and the full DOEd report available from

[ http://tinyurl.com/nk97w8   ]

Enjoy !

/Gerry


Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu

There Are No Answers, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed /
Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace