Online Learning Benefits

Department of Education: Online Education Beats Classroom

This is the headline of an article about the use of computer assisted or online learning, that looks at a study (actually a meta-analysis of current research) conducted by the United States Department of Education. The article lists several key points from the research. Two that struck me were these:

• Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.
• Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.

My first experience with computer assisted learning, other than actually learning to use a computer, was a calculus course in college. I later did some training for a volunteer position through e-learning. Both were very simplistic approaches that, while interactive, were still pretty two-dimensional. It was like reading a textbook online, except that in the first instance I had feedback about whether I was getting the correct answers to problems I solved. There was no option at the time to input the steps followed to get a solution, and no explanation from the computer about where I might have gone wrong, but this was the pioneer days of computers in learning!

Online learning has come a long way in a few years. It can involve any number of added dimensions today – audio, video, animated graphics, step by step demonstrations that wait for the user to input answers, kids’ programming made to seem like a game, and much more. Back in calculus, we didn’t even have colour monitors, let alone internet or animations! If we had diagrams everything had to be written up in ascii!

Blended learning, a combination of traditional face-to-face teaching with online learning methods, seems to have the most benefit overall. This makes sense to me, both because of my own experience in which the computer module was a supplement to regular classroom lectures, and because I have seen my kids grow through having liberal access to a computer and internet in our homeschooling. Some of their activities are directed by a parent (e.g. looking at images, video or animations together and discussing them as we do) while others they do in their free time. They enjoy a number of web sites that are set up as educational games or interactive learning experiences, as well as sites that are more information-based and less interactive.

In both K-12 and post-secondary learning, new computer-based technologies are emerging that offer a whole new way to learn. Oz was telling me a few days ago about a news story he watched, in which he learned that doctors can now use a computer program to practice neurosurgery before actually do it. The program not only shows them where they should be cutting, but apparently gives them tactile feedback so they will learn how the surgery should feel if correctly performed. Video-conferencing is now a norm for in-service staff training in many companies and institutions that offer instruction services to businesses, and now we are beginning to see webinars of all sorts, and live online classes developed for homeschoolers. These last are especially interesting, as they open up a number of possibilities for a homeschooling family that cannot find similar resources (foreign language lessons, art classes, math and science tutoring, or a book club) in their community. For those who do have these options available locally, online classes can be more convenient – no need to go anywhere, offered at times that fit the family’s schedule – or just more economical (lower fees, no transport costs.)

As I mentioned in a recent post at the Freehold, I know a number of homeschoolers and classroom teachers are hesitant to use computers in an educational setting, or may restrict younger children’s access to computers almost completely. With so many benefits and different ways to use a computer in education, I wonder have any of you changed your computer usage policies or homeschooling or after school studies? Leave a comment and let me know how you feel!

Cheers!

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