Online Studying Better than Classroom Education

This may be a tough sell to all but very few teachers but it looks like online education may actually be better than traditional classroom education. A recent comprehensive study by SRI International for the US Department of Education showed that, on average, those who used online resources as their sole source material or as a supplement performed slightly better in testing than the ones who relied on classrooms education.

“On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction,” the study [PDF] concludes. “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,” Barbara Means, the study’s main author, told the New York Times.

The report looked at 99 studies across a twelve-year span, from 1996 to 2008, which compared student performance on the same courses online and in classrooms. The intent was to focus more on K-12 students but the relative shortage of studies in that segment meant that most of the studies included came from colleges or other educational programs outside of the regular school system.

The study found that those who used online resources scored better in tests than those relied only on classroom studying, with the former placed in the 59th percentile on tests and the latter in the 50th percentile. While the difference does not seem that great the report claims it is enough to show a real connection between online studying and better performance.

Advances in online education have really made it a real alternative to traditional studies thanks to tools like video streams and rich media content as well as better collaboration and communication tools. However, this doesn't mean that online resources will replace the classrooms anytime soon and the report underlines the fact that it is not making a case for online studying.

“Despite what appears to be strong support for online learning applications, the studies in this meta-analysis do not demonstrate that online learning is superior as a medium. In many of the studies showing an advantage for online learning, the online and classroom conditions differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy,“ the report read.