A Study about the Effectiveness of Online Learning
Comparative research on learning outcomes in distance education versus face-to-face instructional settings has a long history, reaching back to the 1920s. The findings of hundreds, perhaps thousands of studies, over the decades and through the 1990s have been consistent -there are no significant differences in learning outcomes achieved by students engaged in faceto-face instruction compared to those participating in distance education. This holds true regardless of the technology medium used, the discipline, or the type of student. Beginning around 2000, several studies, including meta-studies.
A large k-125 of experimental and quasi-experimental studies met the established inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis (including data from over 20,000 participating students), and provided effect sizes, clearly demonstrating that in 70 percent of the cases, students taking courses by distance education outperformed their student counterparts in the traditionally instructed courses. By dividing the two-decade time span into four sub-studies, it was determined that the probability of DE [Distance Education] outperforming F2F [Face-to-Face] increased from 1991–2009 and authors predict that it will continue to increase in strength. Keep reading….
