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
the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at
SRI International.
This hardly means that we’ll be saying good-bye to
classrooms. But the report does suggest that online
education could be set to expand sharply over the next few
years, as evidence mounts of its value.
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.
“We are at an inflection point in online education,” said
Philip R. Regier, the dean of Arizona State University’s
Online and Extended Campus program.
The biggest near-term growth, Mr. Regier predicts, will be in
continuing education programs. Today, Arizona State has
5,000 students in its continuing education programs, both
through in-person classes and online. In three to five years,
he estimates, that number could triple, with nearly all the
growth coming online.
But Mr. Regier also thinks online education will continue to
make further inroads in transforming college campuses as
well. Universities — and many K-12 schools — now widely
use online learning management systems, like Blackboard or
the open-source Moodle. But that is mostly for posting
assignments, reading lists, and class schedules and hosting
some Web discussion boards.
Mr. Regier sees things evolving fairly rapidly, accelerated by
the increasing use of social networking technology. More and
more, students will help and teach each other, he said. For
example, it will be assumed that college students know the
basics of calculus, and the classroom time will focus on
applying the math to real-world problems — perhaps in
exploring the physics of climate change or modeling trends
in stock prices, he said.
“The technology will be used to create learning communities
among students in new ways,” Mr. Regier said. “People are
correct when they say online education will take things out
the classroom. But they are wrong, I think, when they
assume it will make learning an independent, personal
activity. Learning has to occur in a community.”