The Chronicle of Higher Education just posted an interesting article titled "The Medium is Not the Message." http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/08/11/kaplan The article stated "A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education released a report that looked at 12 years' worth of education studies, and found that online learning has clear advantages over face-to-face instruction. " As the author, Jonathan Kaplan writes, if the study showed that online students do worse than face-t0-face students the report would have been widely touted.
This study is from the Department of Education. Some of the comments to the post are very interesting. For example, some responders pointed out that online students tend to be older and more self disciplined. Others said that online students spend "more time on task." So much for the myth that online courses are easier!
My experience has been that online students are more engaged in the subject matter, IF the course is correctly designed. If the online course consists of "Power Point/test" then I would see no relation to student success. However, if discussion is encouraged, instructors are visibly present, and grading is swift and reliable, then that seems to encourage learning.
We must recognize the numbers of students currently engaged in online courses. Summarizing six years of escalating enrollment in online courses, Allen and Seaman (2008) found 1/5 of all students enrolled in higher education in fall, 2007 (almost 4 million students!) took at least one online course, and they predicted a compounding annual increase of 10-12% will continue. With the economic downdown, and as States require all State-supported colleges and universities to provide online courses to assure all citizens have equal access to quality education, the number of online students and educators will increase dramaticall.
ReplyDeleteAllen, I.E., & Seaman, J. (2008). Staying the course: Online education in the United States, 2008. Needham, MA: Sloan Consosrtium.