What is the efficacy of online learning over more traditional
face-to-face approaches?

Hi! Thanks for the question.

I found the following studies conducted about e-learning. Here are the
interesting findings. I highly suggest that you read the links in
their entirety so as to get a better grasp of the concepts.

- ?E-learners must be active and assimilate as much knowledge as
possible to reach the necessary level of expertise to pass the exams.
Moreover, they must participate in activities, thereby increasing
their understanding of the concepts:

- ??traditional students may easily assume a passive role during the
lesson, in a form of dependence on the teacher?

- ??on average, the marks of E-learners are just as good, if not
better, than the marks of attendees.?

?E-learning measurement of the learning differences between
traditional lessons and online lessons? by Giuseppe Favretto, Giovanna
Caramia and Matteo Guardini
http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2005/Giuseppe_Favretto.htm 


- ?Remarkably, a much higher percentage of online students made A?s,
and a greater number of students in the traditional classes made the
grade of B.?

- ?Interestingly, the students receiving ?W? in the online class was
at a low percentage, which is not always typical of online classes. In
fact, when the online class was first offered in 1998, there was a
fifty percent dropout rate.?

?Evaluations: Online and Traditional Classes?
http://www.gcu.edu/education-news/online-degrees/online-classes.htm 


- ?Online learning environments require the instructor to facilitate
extensive written communications. While the hours are long involve
posting and responding to threaded questions, evaluating student work
and answering concerns and questions, the upside is ?the learning
appears more profound as the discussions seemed both broader and
wider??

- ?online communications forces the voicing of all the students
whereas in a traditional classroom, learners may not contribute to
discussions.?

- ??due to anonymity, students may feel certain equality with faculty
while posting messages.?

- ?Althaus found that students who were involved in online discussions
created responses that were more thoughtful because they had more time
to read and think about their responses compared to students in a
face-to-face setting.?

- ?Leasure et. al also discovered that an online  forum afforded the
student flexibility with various methods of communication, which
increased student confidence.?

?Bricks and Clicks: A Comparative Analysis of Online and Traditional
Education Settings? by Freda Turner and Jack Crews
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Apr_05/article01.htm 


- ??while teams working exclusively through the medium of computers
were less satisfied with their projects, they evidenced a higher rate
of learning than their traditional counterparts.?

- ?Another related study conducted by Lantz (2001) reported that
professionals working in computer-mediated teams were more task
oriented than traditional teams, in support of the earlier study.?

?Online Learning Teams: Indispensable Interaction? by Muhammad K. Betz
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jun_04/article03.htm


- ?Neuhauser found that both her online and FTF courses had the same
retention rate of 84% (2002).?

- ?95% of the online students felt the online course was as effective
or more effective than the more traditional resident instruction
course (Neuhauser, 2002). The students? responses show that the
overall learning environment was conducive to the students?
expectations.?

- ?As Neuhauser reports, ?The average test score was 88.1% for the
online group and 86.2% for the FTF group? (2002, p. 110). In addition,
the mean final grade for online students was 3.5 and the FTF students
were at 3.35 (Neuhauser, 2002). As one can see, both the test scores
and final grades were higher for the online cohort, but not
significantly higher.?

?Effectiveness of Online Learning?
http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/s/j/sjs19/effectivenessonlinelearning.htm 

 
- ?In addition to higher performance results, there are other
immediate benefits to students such as increased time on task, higher
levels of motivation, and reduced test anxiety for many learners.?

- ??nearly 30 percent of the studies report that e-Learning programmes
had positive outcomes based on student preference, improved grades,
higher cost effectiveness, and a higher percentage of homework
completion.?

- ?The majority of 1,002 students who responded to an e-college.com
survey said they chose the online format because of the flexibility
and convenience of the programme.?

- ?The survey reports that 75 percent of those students online were
employed and 68 percent of the learners worked more than 30 hours per
week (ecollege.com 1999). This fact makes this study particularly
relevant for corporate trainers who seek to fit e-Learning into an
already demanding work schedule.?

?E-Learning Around the World?
http://www.onlinelearning.unu.edu/Resources/UNU%20OL5-Initiatives.pdf 


--------------------------
The next links are articles discussing about other benefits of e-learning.

- ?On a national level, online classes are providing windows to more
educational opportunities for students. Many of these are full-credit
courses offered by major universities.?

- ?Online courses also benefit students who don't live on a college
campus or whose schedules prevent them from attending class at regular
hours.?

?Downloading the classroom: a look at online courses? By Jinah Kim
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/acadcasestudies.htm


- ?Requires student engagement?
- ?Eliminates geographical constraints?
- ?Multiple learning styles can be easily served?
- ?Documents course content?
- ?Students must take a greater responsibility for their education?

?Trends in Online Education: Case Study at Southwest Missouri State University?
By Dr. Lesta A. Burgess and Dr. Shawn D. Strong
http://www.nait.org/jit/Articles/burgess041403.pdf 


Search terms used:  
comparison e-learning ?online learning? traditional classroom studies
traditional classroom studies "online learning " filetype:pdf

I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.
                                                          
                              
Regards,                              
Easterangel-ga                              
Google Answers Researcher

---

Request for Answer Clarification by gonorth-ga on 13 Oct 2005 14:17 PDT

Thank you for the extracts and links. I was hoping for a more
interpretative answer, incorporating some views of the researcher
reached during the process. This does not seem unreasonable given the
standard of typical answers. At the very least I believe I might have
received a summary of the main points where e-Learning has an
advantage over traditional methods. See answer by nancylynne on
similar on 23 September, which I feel is more insightful.

---

Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 13 Oct 2005 15:05 PDT

Hi!

Usually diferent researchers have different styles in answering
questions. Some would rather refer the customer to the original text
itself and provide simple descriptions of the articles, while others
do a summary.

As regards E-learning, based on the articles, the advantages it has
over traditional classrooom settings are that at times students
perform better on test scores and has better knowledge retention than
when they are on a face to face setting. The answers are more thought
out as well since the students has more time to reflect on the subject
as well.

Online learning also takes away the inhibitions of students who might
be shy when they are in a group. As a result they become more
participatory and in the process build confidence as they communicate
with other people.

The best argument for online learning however is that it can serve
different types of learning styles. Unlike classroom settings wherein
there are different people in a group, e-learning enables the
instructor to adjust the teaching method that he or she feels would be
more appropriate to the student.

I hope this would be of help to your research.

Thanks again!

---

Request for Answer Clarification by gonorth-ga on 19 Oct 2005 22:00 PDT

Could you please consider some of the good points of face-to-face. For example:

I think there is other literature that would set out the
disadvantages/limitations too ? cost, amount of time, quality of the
elearning being important to the actual outcomes, quality of the
facilitator?s interactions etc

I think there is some literature that suggests that blended approaches
are even more likely to improve outcomes than either alone.

I think some literature identified that online learners were different
to those who chose face-to-face. Impact on outcomes.

---

Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 19 Oct 2005 22:12 PDT

Hi gonorth-ga!

Your original question only touches upon the efficacy of online
learning. While this new question is the opposite of the original.
Google Answers researchers can only work on the original premise of
the question and we target our answers only to the specific query so
as not to swamp customers with too much information.

In cases like these I would recommend that you post your last
clarification as a new question so that other researchers maybe able
to take a crack at it.

Thanks!