This scene from "Real Genius" was a deserved shot at academia teaching practices. Internet is just as good.
Posted on 08/19/2009 12:32:44 PM PDT by reaganaut1
A recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”
The report examined the comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military.
Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.
“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.
This hardly means that we’ll be saying good-bye to classrooms. But the report does suggest that online education could be set to expand sharply over the next few years, as evidence mounts of its value.
Until fairly recently, online education amounted to little more than electronic versions of the old-line correspondence courses. That has really changed with arrival of Web-based video, instant messaging and collaboration tools.
The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms.
(Excerpt) Read more at bits.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Online learning does not line the pockets of teachers unions or serve as child care for working parents, so this report will not translate into changes in how (or how much) government education money is spent without a lot of pushing.
Teachers get to do LESS and benefit from that.
but the state hits the jackpot with property taxes when it cuts it bricks-and-mortar infrastructure so drastically. not necessarily a bad thing, either. I'm just pointing out their incentive.
But, yeah, how is that one union gonna get its cut?
I suspect one reason is online learners tend to be working adults that are taking the classes to further their career. They have an incentive to do well.
College classrooms tend to be filled with young adults who are there as much for the “college experience” as anything else. Most are happy just not flunking out so they can stay in school another year.
Does this study take into account differences in student makeup between the two types of class? For instance, many students in higher-ed online classes are older, with jobs and families, and so forth. Such students might, on average, be expected to outperform the typical 18-to-20-year-old no matter what the setting.
It doesn’t say if the kiddiepoos did better with online instruction or if that was just the adults.
People will start to wonder if they need their taxes to pay for teachers and teachers aides. A news spot on TV the other night featured a charter school that offers on-line learning. The kids were very involved. They probably liked the peace and quiet. One kid said he preferred it to interacting with a teacher.
The two teachers sat glumly in the back of the classroom, watching the kids, probably wondering what education is going to look like for them 5 or 10 years down the road.
Not really. Online courses take much longer to set up. To be successful, they take a lot of ongoing intervention on the part of the teacher. They take a different kind of work.
I’m a bit dubious about this report; I guess I should read it before I judge it. Only good students should even consider taking an online course. Unmotivated students tend to drop. So I imagine that the universe of online students are better and more motivated than the universe of general college students. They are probably older and more mature with life experience as well, so I wonder if the report is somewhat comparing apples and oranges, at least different kinds of apples.
ping
One can find a “study” to support just about any claim you want to make. Especially true for the NY Times which is so prone to misrepresentation of what the study CONCLUDES!!
I have designed and taught online college level courses for several years. The effectiveness of online education is the same as that for the conventional classroom....student motivation and personal responsibility. It is not so much about process, rather it is mostly about input.
This scene from "Real Genius" was a deserved shot at academia teaching practices. Internet is just as good.
Teaching online is actually more difficult and sometimes the technology itself is a problem. Technical difficulties like server failures, classroom management programs not working as intended and students having problems with their computer hardware or software are issues you don't face in a classroom.
Proposal for the Free Republic High School Diploma.
Saturday, January 08, 2005 2:35:26 PM · by Kevin OMalley · 34 replies · 1,631+ views
Free Republic ^ | 1/8/05 | Kevin O’Malley
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316882/posts
Yup. And, how are all the other Marxists and Commies going to get to indoctornate your child? Oh yeah, then there's diversity...White kids won't be interrupted by all the loud, vulgar and violent behaviour of Black males.
My son will be starting his third year of online High School next week. It has been wonderful.
He failed just about every subject in 9th grade at our local High School. Then he failed them all again during Summer School.
He’s a terrible student and failed mostly because he would lose or forget assignments and homework. He spent just about every Saturday at detention for being late to classes (the school is huge and hard to navigate).
We signed him up for a charter cyber school. He’s completed 9th and 10th grade and starting 11th grade now.
We’ve found that he needs to spend only 3 hours a day doing cyber school work to get a mediocre grade. The courses are difficult but I can be there to help him if needed. I also know everyday what he has accomplished and what he’s falling behind on. He can’t lose his homework or assignemts.
The teachers are accessible and most are really wonderful.
It has been the best thing for him. I don’t think he would have made it to 11th grade in regular high school.
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