In her talk on Nov. 4th at SLOAN C, Means described a study by Lovetter, Meyer, and Thille (2008) where students in an online course learned more content and learned it at a higher level than a group in the same course, only f2f format. However, in a test a few months later, both groups were performing at the same level. The study has been replicated at various levels. It strikes me that these findings mimic those found in Montessori students, where they perform better than their peers in non-Montessori schools, but once integrated, both groups even out.
The "so what" of Means' metastudy was that purely online instruction is equivalent to face to face. It's not the medium, but the redesign of classes to put them online that makes the difference and helps the online class "perform" better than the face to face course.
The superior online courses, and this information was also repeated in a later presentation by David McCollum from University of Maryland University College in a later presentation called "An Online-Instructor Efficacy Self-Evaluation for Identifying Profesional Development Needs," require student-student, student-instructor, and student-content interaction. They adhere to a schedule (are not self-paced), and they use a variety of tools to deliver content. These types of courses are the type we create at KSU in the CHSS training courses.
In the presentation by McCollum, he also found that students learn more and retention improves when instructors use the learning module feature in a learning management system (as opposed to simply grouping content in folders). In addition, stduents learn more and retention improves when instructors use a variety of tools such as wikis, blogs, interactive exercises, etc. This last finding flies in the face of the "common sense" idea that if you do send students outside the lms to a blog or wiki, that they will get lost and confused.
I find it interesting that the criteria for the "superior" courses in the online environment are essentially the same as those in the f2f classroom. Interaction, collaboration, direction, variety - all contribute to learning in any educational setting. Could it be that we need to change our focus from "Which is better - online or f2f?" to "How do we improve instruction in any learning environment?"
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as if you and your KSU colleagues enjoyed valuable experience at the SLOAN-C!