In an effort to ground ourselves in the empirical evidence that drives the best practices for online learning, I came across a meta-analysis conducted by the US Department of Education (2009) that provide additional insight. "Insider Higher Ed" provides a summary of the report (www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/29/online) and the full report is available for download on the website.
Here is an introduction to the scope of the report,
"The Education Department report said that it had identified more than 1,000 empirical studies of online learning that were published from 1996 through July 2008. For its conclusions, however, the Education Department considered only a small number (51) of independent studies that met strict criteria. They had to contrast an online teaching experience to a face-to-face situation, measure student learning outcomes, use a "rigorous research design," and provide adequate information to calculate the differences."
I hope this is helpful.
Rudy, Thank you for the useful link. I read the abstract and the conclusions, and I forwarded the study to my Kindle to read in full later. It is nice to have more research evidence of the value of online and blended learning. In a reply I wrote to Danielle, I referenced a 2002 study (Neuhauser, 2002)comparing face-to-face learning with online learning. It came to a similar conclusion that the two formats have similar outcomes, but blending the two formats produces significant improvement over either format.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Neuhauser, C. (2002). Learning style and effectiveness of online and Face-to-Face instruction. The American Journal of Distance
Education, 16(2), 99-113. Retrieved fromhttp://www.personal.psu.edu/khk122/woty/LearnerCharacteristics/Neuhauser%202002.pdf