Today in class we discussed the growing trend of online learning in the schooling system. I myself personally would take a classroom as a learning environment whether than doing it online. I feel the setting is just more interactive and conducive to learning. So, this made me curious if any studies had been done on the effectiveness of online education as compared to the traditional system.
SRI International for the Department of Education actually put together a fairly large report. This report was done over a 12 year timetable and compiled a total of 99 studies. This report appears to be based off of a bunch of observational studies. The studies dealt with both K-12 settings and colleges/adult continuing-education. The majority of these studies however were in the latter. The study actually showed that on average students in online learning do better than those in the traditional classrooms. The normal classroom setting showed students on average ranking in the 50th percentile. The average student ranking in an online learning program was in the 59th percentile. These were all comparisons with the same courses.
I feel there are many factors that contribute to these results. Off the top many might look at that study and assume the education is better, but I don’t necessarily believe this to be the case. I feel this study’s results are more representative of the individuals instead of the prestige of the education type. When it comes to the K-12 there can be many varying factors. From my experience a lot of kids that do the online route do it because of negative externalities going on in the school. This would cause these individuals being in a better personal environment causing them to do better than being in a normal classroom. Also, a lot of public schools are full of kids that don’t want to be there and don’t really try that hard which can bring down that average. This can be seen as a similar case with the colleges and adult continuing-education programs. A lot of kids just go to college because it has become the norm and don’t come in taking it as seriously as they should. I can see the individuals in the online programs being ones that are highly motivated due to the possibility of not having the same amount of opportunities as others.
This study is definitely a good indicator that these online learning programs are not going anywhere anytime soon. With the growing technology the limits to these programs are infinite. As was said in class it’s just a wonder of how these are going to affect the normal classroom and not a question of if.
I would be interested to know if students “self-selected” into an online environment in this study. Speaking from personal experience, I taught myself ACCT 211 (notoriously one of the most difficult business prerequisites) in the online option. I think I really enjoyed it because I am typically good at teaching myself and I often find lectures frustrating because we spend time rehashing concepts I’m already comfortable with instead of moving forward at “my speed”. In a way, online learning helps me to learn more efficiently, for lack of a better word.
However, I think driven students might be more inclined to take an online option if given the free choice to “self-select”, leading to a higher score, like the study showed. In a really convincing study, students would be randomly assigned to groups rather than just observed in their choice.
I agree with a lot of the things you said in this post. Especially the fact that many college students don’t really take schoolwork as seriously as they should. It’s interesting that the study showed that online education students did better than others. But, as you said, this could be due to extraneous variables.
I feel like by physically going to school, you are able to learn a lot more than you would at a computer. Especially by going to college, you learn about way more than just your classes. I think by being in a learning environment with other students, you are given an opportunity to learn how to interact with others socially and professionally. And in the real world where we’ll all need to get a job and be interviewed, those skills are important.
I found an article by Candy Lawson in the Center for Development and Learning website. It discusses the social aspects of life we learn in school. She talks about greetings, communication, and social status.
http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/social_skills.php
I definitely agree that I would prefer to go to an actual classroom to be taught rather than receive my education online. That being said, it may say something about my own personality that I have this preference. I think there would be far too many distractions with an online course and having a professor right in front of you to answer questions and grade your work is definitely a plus. I, too, think that it isn’t the education but the students themselves that are motivated to perform better when learning online. They chose that route for a reason and know they have to be determined and self-motivated to get all of their work done. While a woman who wrote this blog http://voices.yahoo.com/10-reasons-why-take-online-classes-67956.htmlon giving 10 reasons why you should take online classes has no scientific facts to back it up, she does list some very valid benefits to online schooling.