I’ve blogged before (see here and here) about the important trend towards
effective online education.
Now he US Department of Education reports that online instruction is more effective that face to face instruction. They say the data is solid for post-secondary students, but skimpy for K-12 students. Their online press release states (here):
The analysis also showed that the instruction conducted wholly on line was
more effective in improving student achievement than the purely face to face
instruction. In addition, the report noted that the blended conditions often
included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by
students in control conditions.
“This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost effective in school districts and colleges nationwide,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We must take advantage of this historic opportunity to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to bring broadband access and online learning to more communities.
“To avoid being caught short when stimulus money runs out, school officials
should use the short-term federal funding to make immediate upgrades to
technology to enhance classroom instruction and to improve the tracking of
student data,” Duncan added. “Technology presents a huge opportunity that can
be leveraged in rural communities and inner-city urban settings, particularly in
subjects where there is a shortage of highly qualified teachers. At the same
time, good teachers can utilize new technology to accelerate learning and
provide extended learning opportunities for students.”
Few rigorous research studies have been published on the effectiveness of online learning for K-12 students. The systematic search found just five experimental or controlled quasi-experimental studies comparing the learning effects of online versus face-to-face instruction for K-12 students. For this reason, caution is required in generalizing the study’s findings to the K-12 population because the results are for the most part based on studies in other settings, such as in medical, career, military training, and higher education.
“Studies of earlier generations of distance and online learning courses have concluded that they are usually as effective as classroom-based instruction,” said Marshall “Mike” Smith, a Senior Counselor to the secretary. “The studies of more recent online instruction included in this meta-analysis found that, on average, online learning, at the post-secondary level, is not just as good as but more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction..”
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