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.

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