Do Online Students Perform Better than Face-to-face Students? Reflections and a Short Review of some Empirical Findings

Lundberg, Johan; Castillo‐Merino, David; Dahmani, Mounir

doi:10.7238/rusc.v5i1.326

Cited by 28 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…An early meta-analysis of research dating from 1928 to 1998 consisting of 355 research reports and papers concluded there was no significant difference in learners' success between traditional instruction and instruction employing technology (Russell 2001). Subsequent meta-analysis studies have supported this conclusion (Cavanaugh et al 2004, Jahng et al 2007, Zhao et al 2005, Lundberg et al 2008. However, other meta-analysis studies have found a significant difference between online and traditional instruction (Bernard et al 2004, Allen et al 2004, Shachar, Neumann 2003, Sitzmann et al 2006, Williams 2006.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

A comparison of online and traditional chemistry lecture and lab

Faulconer

Griffith

Wood

et al. 2018

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the equivalence between online and traditional classrooms has been well researched, very little effort has been expended to do such comparisons for college level introductory chemistry. The existing literature has only one study that investigated chemistry lectures at an entire course level as opposed to particular course components such as individual topics or exams. Regarding lab courses, only one study is available and it involves moderating variables that are largely uncontrolled. In this work, we compared the student pass rates, withdrawal rates, and grade distributions between asynchronous online and traditional formats of an introductory chemistry lecture as well as its associated lab course. The study was based on the 823 university records available for the 2015–2016 academic year. Student pass and withdrawal rates between the two modes were quite similar and did not appear to be statistically significant. However, grade distributions for both the lecture and lab differed between the two learning modes, showing significant statistical associations. Online students were more likely to earn As in both lecture and lab while traditional in-person students were more likely to earn Cs or Ds. Further research should include replication of this study with a larger data set. Additionally, this study should be repeated in three to five years to determine if advances in course design, standardization and delivery platforms further reduce or eliminate differences between learning modes. Future studies should also use qualitative tools for a better understanding of why students fail or withdraw from courses.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

A comparison of online and traditional chemistry lecture and lab

Faulconer

Griffith

Wood

et al. 2018

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Naturally, educators and researchers have been exploring the equivalency of the online and traditional modes of instruction. The significant body of research on the topic has mixed results, with some meta-analysis studies indicating no significant difference between traditional instruction and instruction employing technology while others found significant differences (Allen et al 2004;Bernard et al 2004;Cavanaugh et al 2004;Jahng et al 2007;Lundberg et al 2008;Nguyen 2015;Russell 2001;Shachar and Neumann 2003;Sitzmann et al 2006;Williams 2006;Xu and Jaggars 2013;Zhao et al 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparison of Online, Video Synchronous, and Traditional Learning Modes for an Introductory Undergraduate Physics Course

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the equivalence between online and traditional classrooms has been well-researched, very little of this includes college-level introductory Physics. Only one study explored Physics at the whole-class level rather than specific course components such as a single lab or a homework platform. In this work, we compared the failure rate, grade distribution, and withdrawal rates in an introductory undergraduate Physics course across several learning modes including traditional face-to-face instruction, synchronous video instruction, and online classes. Statistically significant differences were found for student failure rates, grade distribution, and withdrawal rates but yielded small effect sizes. Post-hoc pair-wise test was run to determine differences between learning modes. Online students had a significantly lower failure rate than students who took the class via synchronous video classroom. While statistically significant differences were found for grade distributions, the pair-wise comparison yielded no statistically significance differences between learning modes when using the more conservative Bonferroni correction in post-hoc testing. Finally, in this study, student withdrawal rates were lowest for students who took the class in person (in-person classroom and synchronous video classroom) than online. Students that persist in an online introductory Physics class are more likely to achieve an A than in other modes. However, the withdrawal rate is higher from online Physics courses. Further research is warranted to better understand the reasons for higher withdrawal rates in online courses. Finding the root cause to help eliminate differences in student performance across learning modes should remain a high priority for education researchers and the education community as a whole.

show abstract

“…With higher education as an illustrative example, a financial analysis of the costs and benefits of an investment targets a department, a faculty or the university, while a (social) cost-benefit analysis focuses on the same investment but considers its effects on the society as a whole. A department, for example, facing an investment in an online-based course or programme is probably concerned with the opportunities of scale in terms of more students reached per teacher hour invested or if it could lead to increased quality compared to face-to-face training and better student performance (Lundberg, 2007;Coates et al, 2004;Brown and Liedholm, 2002). This analysis ends when the student leaves the education programme.…”

Section: Cost-benefit Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

E-learning as a Regional Policy Tool: Principles for a Cost-benefit Analysis

Hanes¹,

Lundberg²

2008

RUSC. Univ. and Know. Soc.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A bill presented by the Swedish Government in 2001 stated that higher education should aim for a broader recruitment of students. The use of ICT-tools is pointed out as a way of reaching new student groups, e.g. students who are immobile due to their social situation or physical handicap. At the same time, a number of regions in Sweden struggle with negative net migration that is to a large extent driven by labour market conditions and younger people moving away for higher education. These regions experience a shortage of human capital within certain competence areas. In line with the aim of the government bill, national and local governments tackle this by integrating higher education and regional policy; i.e. bringing higher education to the inhabitants in an attempt to target groups such as those with strong bonds to the region hoping to encourage them to remain in the region after graduation. Higher education is costly and it is the local governments who bear the added cost of bringing education to the inhabitants. In order to minimize costs, programmes and courses are therefore given by the use of ICT-tools. The degree of net-based training (e-learning) varies over programmes and courses from 100 percent net-based to blended learning. At least three questions are important when deciding whether or not to invest in net-based higher education: Are new target groups reached? Is the net-based education of the same quality, or higher, compared to the alternative on-campus programme? Is the investment motivated from a welfare perspective? The aim of this paper is to analyse e-learning as a regional policy tool and present the principles for social cost benefit analysis concerning net-based higher education. In addition, empirical evidence from a Swedish case study is briefly presented.

show abstract

Do Online Students Perform Better than Face-to-face Students? Reflections and a Short Review of some Empirical Findings

Cited by 28 publications

References 11 publications

A comparison of online and traditional chemistry lecture and lab

A comparison of online and traditional chemistry lecture and lab

A Comparison of Online, Video Synchronous, and Traditional Learning Modes for an Introductory Undergraduate Physics Course

E-learning as a Regional Policy Tool: Principles for a Cost-benefit Analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About