Yes

by Robin Landry

Created on: October 09, 2009   Last Updated: December 21, 2009

There was a time when terms like polyester, discount stores and even Made in Japan conjured up images of inferior quality. Today, however most of us look quite stylish wearing our easy-care, polyester blend outfits as we purchase state-of-the-art, high definition, flat screen TVs made in Japan from upscale big box discount stores.

The evolution of online educational programs has occurred in much the same way. In the beginning, correspondence courses in which lessons were transmitted via the postal system were popular. By the 1960s and 70s television began to play a more prominent role. And with the advent of the personal home computer in the late 1980s and the Internet boom of the 1990s and beyond the shift to web-based training seemed to be the natural next step.

During their infancy, it appears that online college degree programs were met with skepticism by educators and employers alike. Were these programs legitimate or simply fraudulent scams and diploma mills pumping out fake credentials to anyone willing to pay the fees? Opinions on this issue were decidedly mixed. However, even among those who accepted that the programs were real another troubling question still loomed: Can online learning ever be as effective as traditional classroom learning? An extensive study conducted by the U. S. Department of Education seems to suggest that it can.

The study, titled Evaluation of Evidence Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies was conducted by the U. S. Department of Education from 1996 through 2008. It analyzed one thousand previous studies that compared the effectiveness of online versus face-to-face instruction.

The results were somewhat unexpected, in that studies comparing earlier forms of distance learning, such as educational television broadcasts, videoconferencing and correspondence courses revealed few differences from traditional classroom instruction.

However, the study found that in many instances students in the online learning environment actually appeared to have grasped the material more thoroughly than their counterparts taking the same courses in traditional classrooms. But why would this be the case? Several theories surfaced.

First, in a traditional classroom the student generally has one opportunity to hear the lecture and capture as much of it in his notes as possible. If he has missed something he might be able to attend another section of the course or borrow the notes of a classmate.

Or, if the professor is amenable, he might be able to visit during office hours for more clarification.

But, in the online classroom, students have more control over their interactions with the course material. If the course uses video streaming, it may be possible to replay difficult sections of the lecture multiple times. Students also have the opportunity to engage in online discussions with fellow classmates enabling them to bounce ideas off each other in a way that might not happen if forced to rely on face-to-face study groups.

Online discussion boards and chat rooms also offer greater accessibility for all students. Students can post comments and questions and participate in class discussions at their own convenience. In the traditional classroom there is the danger that an extremely vocal or opinionated student may dominate the conversation. But in the virtual classroom students don't have to battle for the instructor's attention quite as much. The shy or soft-spoken student has an equal chance of being heard in the online environment.

Finally, some believe that the online classroom is perfectly egalitarian in nature. Professors can only evaluate students based on their written work and discussion board participation. Physical attractiveness, race and social class are more difficult to ascertain in the virtual classroom and professors are less likely to be influenced by these factors when grading more subjective items like research papers and projects.

While there are an increasing number of accredited, high quality, online degree programs available the instructional method still has its detractors. Concerns over whether academic dishonesty is easier and therefore more prevalent in online courses are among the most common. How would an instructor prevent, for example, a student enrolling in an online course and then paying someone else to do all of the coursework for her?

On the surface, this appears to be a legitimate concern, but is it one strictly limited to online courses? In my undergraduate days I don't ever recall an instructor checking IDs at the beginning of the semester to verify that the students showing up each day for class were actually the same individuals enrolled in the class. A determined and financially well endowed cheater could theoretically pay an imposter to attend every class and complete every assignment in his place, especially in large, lecture style classes with little danger of detection.

Also, plagiarism and the practice of hiring ghostwriters to complete term papers are tactics that the academically dishonest have employed for generations, long before the advent of online education. The only area in which the online instructor seems as a significant disadvantage in the prevention of cheating is in the area of administering exams. Unless professors are resigned to consider every test open book, additional preventative measures would have to be undertaken in order to curb cheating in this area.

In a 2003 article, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) assistant professor Barbara Christe offers some practical thoughts on how to help maintain the integrity of online courses. Her suggestions include things like:

Setting clear expectations for academic honesty in the course syllabus Outlining clear consequences for academic dishonesty Crafting exam questions so that they are difficult to answer by glancing through the textbook Using time limits on exams designed to place students who must search through the textbook or access other sources of information for answers at a distinct disadvantage Utilizing technology such as webcams, fingerprint authentication and other tracking and security measures to monitor student behavior.

From my personal experience with both traditional and online learning I strongly believe that either venue can provide students with either a rewarding and beneficial learning experience or a decidedly dismal one as the result of a variety of factors. As an undergraduate at a traditional university I had many valuable and enlightening courses punctuated by others that sadly, bordered on complete and utter worthlessness.

I can recall two examples where I might have gained more from an online version of the course had it been offered. The first example was an Economics course taught by a brilliant Chinese professor whose English was nearly indecipherable. Since he was widely published and very well respected in the department I would guess that I would have gleaned much more from the course in an online format where his communication with students would have been written rather than verbal.

The other example was an English Literature and Composition class taught by a fairly eccentric professor who apparently believed that it was only necessary to bathe and change his clothing once per week. By Friday the overpowering body odor that I was forced to endure from my front row seat was so distracting that I nearly dropped the class!

By contrast, I have taken two graduate level courses online. The first course was on critical thinking and was excellent. The instructor encouraged students to offer feedback to one another on our answers to essay questions posted in the discussion forum and then critiqued our comments to one another. We also were required to complete case studies and a research paper through a series of incremental assignments. The class was interesting and the instructor engaging, available and always ready to provide constructive feedback.

The other class was more of a technical class on research techniques and was not conducted nearly as well. The instructor was too involved; he seemed to be attempting to recreate the lecture format online by sending out long, detailed email messages with multiple attachments that often locked up my system and he was too quick to jump into student discussions. Often after the first or second posted response to a discussion question, he would point out all of the flaws in a student's answer, thereby discouraging participation by anyone else who might have shared the same ideas. I'm not sure, however, that the shortcomings in would have been any fewer had the class been conducted face-to-face.

It seems unlikely that online educational opportunities are going to go away any time soon. In fact, it is probably fairly safe to assume that their quality will only improve with greater advances in technology. If students are diligent in researching online programs in the same way they have been when choosing brick and mortar campuses it seems reasonable to conclude that the benefits received from the online program will be comparable as well.

References:

Christe, Barbara. Designing Online Courses to Discourage Dishonesty, Educause Quarterly, Number 4, 2003, pp. 54 -58.

http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

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