Until fairly recently, on-line education amounted to little more than electronic versions of the old, off-line correspondence courses. That has really changed with arrival of broadband internet, social networking, web-based video, instant messaging and a whole smorgasbord of collaboration tools.
The full report, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: a meta-analysis and review of online learning studies (pdf) by SRI International for the US Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, is over 90 pages long but has a most intriguing conclusion:
On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction
Click here to read the New York Times summary of the report
All may not be as it first seems..
Before you go off and rent out your training rooms to pay for a webserver to host your online courses – read the report carefully!
We’ll be posting our thoughts soon – see if you can spot the problems and burst the hype…
UPDATE: We’ve published our response to the Dept of Education report by SRI International reported by the NY Times: Busting the myth that e-learning is more effective than face-to-face
Paul and Ally are working on an exciting 6-part (online) course to help your learners fully engage with your training - sign up for the 'early bird' list for advanced notification and more info
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4 Comments
The number of comments on the Times article posting is daunting. When I first went through the Meta-analysis document, my take was this: the most effective type of learning was BLENDED — not online only. I read the report to suggest that online learning is not recommended to replace classroom learning, but to supplement it.
To me this makes sense. It’s the most brain-friendly method, because you can gleen the best of both techniques and appeal to all types of learners. The more methods you use to teach, the better the outcome. You can introduce material in class, give individuals a chance to discuss it, AND you can give them an online opportunity to dig deeper and/or practice at their own pace.
You are spot on Susan, it really irritates me that this meta-analysis is being used by those with a vested interest in on-line methods to persuade trainers replace the classroom with the PC.
I’ve already drafted our follow up article where I’ve re-written the conclusion, it’ll be posted in the next few days
Excellent reply.
Glad you liked our response to the research.
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Online Education Beats the Classroom – http://bit.ly/yZBjS
[...] recent post by Paul titled Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom linked to a New York Times article. The source research for the article has caused quite a stir in [...]