Re: [Air-l] online education effectiveness
As with most applications of CMC, the question is not really whether programs are effective or cost effective, but how to do it best anyway. Sloan-C supported a lot of work in the US with the aim of proving that teaching and learning was possible via asynchronous learning (ALN for asynchronous learning networks), and then to see about cost effectiveness. In general, most would agree about the former, but also that it is not (yet?) a cost saving. Indeed, many wonder why educational institutions should be trying to make a cheaper model of education. The flip side is why should educational institutions be so expensive and thus exclude others. Research -- lots of journals, from the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks to many Education journals, and work in CMC journals. Plus, Sloan-C reports, National School Board and department of education reports. Main effectiveness reference is the No Significant Difference work (http:// www.nosignificantdifference.org/) showing no difference in learning outcomes online vs off. Hence it is 'as good as' ftf/offline. More subtle effectiveness work points out the greater reach of online, advantages for those with different learning styles (e.g., the reflexivity possible in online venues, and ability to review materials), opportunities to be embedded in local work and community, and the variety of mediated options that increase variety of educational means. There are several notable large scale failures of programs at the university level (e.g., UK eU), but many success stories at the program/degree level. UIUC is currently proposing a 'Global Campus' -- we're waiting to see if the board approves the money. /Caroline ---- Original message ----
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:23:45 +0100 (BST) From: Heidi Campbell <hcampbe1@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Re: [Air-l] online education effectiveness To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org
Hi All.
Does anyone know any good research reports or review articles that deal with the effectiveness of online education tools or initiatives? For instance, friend told me the The University of Illinois just invested $20 million in just trying to assess feasibility of its online education program.
So what evidence is out there right now as to whether online education tools/ programs are effective or cost effective?
Cheers-
Heidi
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---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820
The argument I buy about the cost and time effectiveness of DL courses as opposed to traditional classroom courses is about what the time and money invested are being invested in. Students can spend time studying that would be spend driving to a campus and end up investing about the same total time but learning more. They can also use any scrap of time in their schedule to do their work. Many students can find enough scraps of time during the week to do one course whose schedules would make it very difficult to fit that same one course in with regular meeting times in a traditional classroom. I have never seen any research on this but I would bet that the percentage of the total cost spent per student that goes to paying people to teach or design instructional materials is much higher in DL classes than in traditional classroom courses. So much of the money spent on education goes to building parking lots and other such that have little to do with actually learning anything that my strong hunch is that DL is a more economical way to learn whether we are speaking of an investment of time or of money. TMike --- Caroline Haythornthwaite <haythorn@uiuc.edu> wrote:
As with most applications of CMC, the question is not really whether programs are effective or cost effective, but how to do it best anyway. Sloan-C supported a lot of work in the US with the aim of proving that teaching and learning was possible via asynchronous learning (ALN for asynchronous learning networks), and then to see about cost effectiveness. In general, most would agree about the former, but also that it is not (yet?) a cost saving. Indeed, many wonder why educational institutions should be trying to make a cheaper model of education. The flip side is why should educational institutions be so expensive and thus exclude others.
Research -- lots of journals, from the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks to many Education journals, and work in CMC journals. Plus, Sloan-C reports, National School Board and department of education reports.
Main effectiveness reference is the No Significant Difference work (http:// www.nosignificantdifference.org/) showing no difference in learning outcomes online vs off. Hence it is 'as good as' ftf/offline.
More subtle effectiveness work points out the greater reach of online, advantages for those with different learning styles (e.g., the reflexivity possible in online venues, and ability to review materials), opportunities to be embedded in local work and community, and the variety of mediated options that increase variety of educational means.
There are several notable large scale failures of programs at the university level (e.g., UK eU), but many success stories at the program/degree level.
UIUC is currently proposing a 'Global Campus' -- we're waiting to see if the board approves the money.
/Caroline
---- Original message ----
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:23:45 +0100 (BST) From: Heidi Campbell <hcampbe1@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Re: [Air-l] online education effectiveness
To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org
Hi All.
Does anyone know any good research reports or review articles that deal with the effectiveness of online education tools or initiatives? For instance, friend told me the The University of Illinois just invested $20 million in just trying to assess feasibility of its online education program.
So what evidence is out there right now as to whether online education tools/ programs are effective or cost effective?
Cheers-
Heidi
--------------------------------- All New Yahoo! Mail â Tired of Vi@gr@! come-ons? Let our SpamGuard protect you. _______________________________________________ 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/
---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820
_______________________________________________ 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
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participants (2)
-
Caroline Haythornthwaite -
Dr. T. Michael Roberts