Is online learning as effective as face-to-face education? I’ve been reading some studies and survey assessments. The studies show online learning is at least as good, and in marny cases outperforms traditional face-to-face learning, as shown in a report referenced here:

Comparative research on learning outcomes in distance education versus face-to-face instructional settings has a long history, reaching back to the 1920s. The findings of hundreds, perhaps thousands of studies, over the decades and through the 1990s have been consistent – there are no significant differences in learning outcomes achieved by students engaged in faceto-face instruction compared to those participating in distance education. This holds true regardless of the technology medium used, the discipline, or the type of student. Beginning around 2000, several studies, including meta-studies (review and analysis of hundreds of studies selected for their rigor), began to find significant differences in favor of online learning. These studies culminated in 2010 with a report from the U.S. Department of Education “Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies.”

… students taking courses by distance education outperformed their student counterparts in the traditionally instructed courses. By dividing the two-decade time span into four sub-studies, it was determined that the probability of DE [Distance Education] outperforming F2F [Face-to-Face] increased from 1991–2009 and authors predict that it will continue to increase in strength.

… we now have good and ample evidence that students
generally learn as much online as they do in traditional classroom environments.

Early studies pointed to No Significant Difference between online and face-to-face learning, but as online learning methods and technologies improve, we are observing superior learning through online education.

Some of those methods may include the distinct advantages of online learning – self-pacing, ability to do ‘quick assessments’ in fast-turnaround, automated assessment/test grading for immediate feedback. (Why wait a week to find you flunked a test? find out in 10 minutes, and use that to go back and learn what was missed.) Grades can be replaced with the concept of self-paced competencies. And newer web technologies are enabling personal interaction to replace the face-to-face teacher-student interaction, for example with chat, video-conferencing, etc., to inforporate tutoring with online learning.

The last frontier will be the use of artificial intelligence in tutoring.

Given the large cost overhead with College facilities and professors, classrooms and teachers, given the inherent inflexibility of pacing all students together in a class, there are clear cost and flexibility advantages of online courses that traditional teaching cannot match. As online learning improves, the traditional face-to-face teaching model is becoming obsolete.

By Patrick