Over the last decade online learning has become more and more prevalent. It’s obvious that online learning adds convenience to learning in many cases, but is this trend helping or hurting student performance? Some might guess that face-to-face instruction from teachers would yield higher performance, however, it turns out that this is not always the case.
SRI International conducted a study reviewing the performance reports of students from 1996 to 2008 to examine the outcomes of online versus traditional learning. The results? Students who received some or all of their instruction from online sources scored in the 59th percentile in tested performance compared to the average 50th percentile held by students receiving typical classroom instruction.
Barbara Means, the lead author of the study said: “The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction.”
Clearly, online learning is beneficial, but why? Most experts believe this is because it offers students a more individualized learning experience. Internet technologies allow instruction that is catered to each individual student’s progress. Also, with instant messaging and video conferencing hosted on several online platforms, students have instant access to their teachers allowing them to ask questions that they may be too shy to ask in a classroom full of their peers.
By posting assignments online, students that have a difficulty remembering what they are suppose to complete each day, can easily access this information.
With the results pointing towards online learning, it will be interesting to see how it evolves in the years to come.
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