Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom
Christian I agree. Its not online vs offline - but difference in pedagogy and engagement. The student has to be active in online discussion to be "present" - likewise the instructor has to be engaged on various levels in order to keep up with "teaching" in an online setting. It also takes much more time and effort on the part of the instructor before - in preparing - and during class ... r On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Christian Nelson <xianknelson@mac.com>wrote:
Oops, forgot that pesky new policy and responded only to Gerry. Anyway, here are my concerns about this news. First, I wonder if the researchers controlled for student ability and motivation. Online students tend to be the more bright and motivated ones. Second, I wonder if they controlled for amount of student-teacher interaction. I suspect that most online teachers are adjuncts and non-tenured folks from whom much student interaction time can be demanded, and student-instructor interaction seems unavoidable in online courses, much as online instructors might seek to limit it. (At least, that was true in the one I took. My professor vigorously tried to avoid or at least lessen interaction, but had a hard time doing so.) On the other hand, most off-line teaching is low in student-teacher interaction. Research indicates that even most discussion section teaching is lecturing--the same kind of thing you'd find in a large lecture hall . . . or on a TV delivering distance ed. courses for that matter. In light of that, it is little wonder that students might do better online, given that interaction is unavoidable in online courses. If amount of interaction is the cause of the difference found here, it is then misleading to pose this as a difference between online and "face-to-face" teaching, and unfortunate that it does so, because I'm sure that truly discussion-focused face-to-face teaching trumps online teaching, at least as its found in the majority of places today. And there's no guarantee that online teaching will maintain its level of student-instructor interaction--soon we'll have teaching via video-conferencing and with it a likely increased presence of lecturing and its equivalents online. --Christian Nelson
-- Radhika Gajjala Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies Interim Women's Studies Director 2009-2010 233 Shatzel Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
On Aug 19, 2009, at 7:04 PM, Radhika Gajjala wrote:
It also takes much more time and effort on the part of the instructor before - in preparing - and during class ...
Ain't that the truth. I haven't taught one, but I know my online instructor poured a lot of effort into the class and it was still confusing for the students. That leads me to recall that the confusion in the course led my fellow students and me to seek each other out in the BlackBoard asynchronous forum area to help each other deal with the confusion. That, and the fact that I never participated in such interaction during my offline undergraduate days oh so many years ago, makes me wonder if online or partly online courses don't have more student-to-student interaction, which would likely increase student performance. Hmmmm. --Christian
Here's an "older" book that actually details what should be done to run a good online classroom - As well as student responses (in 1999) Palloff, R. M. and K. Pratt (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. There may be an update. Highly recommended. Denise Denise N. Rall, PhD. Special Projects, Faculty of Arts & Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA Mobile +(61) (0)438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/ Join the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Internet Research 10.0, October 7-11, Milwaukee, WI, USA --- On Thu, 20/8/09, Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> Subject: [Air-L] Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Received: Thursday, 20 August, 2009, 9:04 AM Christian I agree.
Its not online vs offline - but difference in pedagogy and engagement. The student has to be active in online discussion to be "present" - likewise the instructor has to be engaged on various levels in order to keep up with "teaching" in an online setting.
It also takes much more time and effort on the part of the instructor before - in preparing - and during class ...
r
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Christian Nelson <xianknelson@mac.com>wrote:
Oops, forgot that pesky new policy and responded only to Gerry. Anyway, here are my concerns about this news. First, I wonder if the researchers controlled for student ability and motivation. Online students tend to be the more bright and motivated ones. Second, I wonder if they controlled for amount of student-teacher interaction. I suspect that most online teachers are adjuncts and non-tenured folks from whom much student interaction time can be demanded, and student-instructor interaction seems unavoidable in online courses, much as online instructors might seek to limit it. (At least, that was true in the one I took. My professor vigorously tried to avoid or at least lessen interaction, but had a hard time doing so.) On the other hand, most off-line teaching is low in student-teacher interaction. Research indicates that even most discussion section teaching is lecturing--the same kind of thing you'd find in a large lecture hall . . . or on a TV delivering distance ed. courses for that matter. In light of that, it is little wonder that students might do better online, given that interaction is unavoidable in online courses. If amount of interaction is the cause of the difference found here, it is then misleading to pose this as a difference between online and "face-to-face" teaching, and unfortunate that it does so, because I'm sure that truly discussion-focused face-to-face teaching trumps online teaching, at least as its found in the majority of places today. And there's no guarantee that online teaching will maintain its level of student-instructor interaction--soon we'll have teaching via video-conferencing and with it a likely increased presence of lecturing and its equivalents online. --Christian Nelson
-- Radhika Gajjala Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies Interim Women's Studies Director 2009-2010 233 Shatzel Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
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I agree that is an excellent resource. I also would recommend Ko, S., & Rosen, S. (2001). Teaching online: A practical guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. It does a good job detailing pedagogical practices that can help when implementing an online classes. Kindest Regards, Akesha Horton follow me at http://twitter.com/akesha "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has..." - Margaret Mead On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 7:21 PM, Denise N. Rall <denrall@yahoo.com> wrote:
Here's an "older" book that actually details what should be done to run a good online classroom -
As well as student responses (in 1999) Palloff, R. M. and K. Pratt (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
There may be an update. Highly recommended.
Denise
Denise N. Rall, PhD. Special Projects, Faculty of Arts & Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA Mobile +(61) (0)438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/staff/pages/drall/ Join the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Internet Research 10.0, October 7-11, Milwaukee, WI, USA
--- On Thu, 20/8/09, Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Radhika Gajjala <cyborgwati@gmail.com> Subject: [Air-L] Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Received: Thursday, 20 August, 2009, 9:04 AM Christian I agree.
Its not online vs offline - but difference in pedagogy and engagement. The student has to be active in online discussion to be "present" - likewise the instructor has to be engaged on various levels in order to keep up with "teaching" in an online setting.
It also takes much more time and effort on the part of the instructor before - in preparing - and during class ...
r
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 4:57 PM, Christian Nelson <xianknelson@mac.com wrote:
Oops, forgot that pesky new policy and responded only to Gerry. Anyway, here are my concerns about this news. First, I wonder if the researchers controlled for student ability and motivation. Online students tend to be the more bright and motivated ones. Second, I wonder if they controlled for amount of student-teacher interaction. I suspect that most online teachers are adjuncts and non-tenured folks from whom much student interaction time can be demanded, and student-instructor interaction seems unavoidable in online courses, much as online instructors might seek to limit it. (At least, that was true in the one I took. My professor vigorously tried to avoid or at least lessen interaction, but had a hard time doing so.) On the other hand, most off-line teaching is low in student-teacher interaction. Research indicates that even most discussion section teaching is lecturing--the same kind of thing you'd find in a large lecture hall . . . or on a TV delivering distance ed. courses for that matter. In light of that, it is little wonder that students might do better online, given that interaction is unavoidable in online courses. If amount of interaction is the cause of the difference found here, it is then misleading to pose this as a difference between online and "face-to-face" teaching, and unfortunate that it does so, because I'm sure that truly discussion-focused face-to-face teaching trumps online teaching, at least as its found in the majority of places today. And there's no guarantee that online teaching will maintain its level of student-instructor interaction--soon we'll have teaching via video-conferencing and with it a likely increased presence of lecturing and its equivalents online. --Christian Nelson
-- Radhika Gajjala Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies Interim Women's Studies Director 2009-2010 233 Shatzel Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik <http://personal.bgsu.edu/%7Eradhik> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
__________________________________________________________________________________ Find local businesses and services in your area with Yahoo!7 Local. Get started: http://local.yahoo.com.au _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
It's meta-analysis. I spent some time looking through the study when it was released week-before-last and had planned to write a blog post about it. Had a short discussion on Twitter w/another educator. When you look at the actual results-- not the narrative -- you'll see that the factor that accounted for the most explanation of the difference in grades was TIME ON TASK. This factor has nothing to do with whether education is conducted on- or off-line per se -- although an argument might be made that students who decide to take online classes have a different level of motivation for study. IIRC, there was no variable for cohort age. I really should write that post. :-) Kathy (coming out of lurk mode) -- Kathy E. Gill Master of Communication, Digital Media Department of Communication, University of Washington Box 353740, Seattle WA 98195 http://uwdigitalmedia.org/ 206.543.2660 - office; 425.351.0005 - cell @kegill - Twitter
participants (5)
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Akesha -
Christian Nelson -
Denise N. Rall -
Kathy Gill -
Radhika Gajjala