Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning

One of the first things that surprised me was when the study discussed how, "policy-makers reasoned that if online instruction is no worse than traditional instruction, then online education initiatives could be justified on the basis of cost efficiency." This was surprising because we are starting to see a small fragment of this thinking already at the high-school level. Not so much in the replacing of classroom teaching for self-paced online courses, but smaller steps such as finding textbooks online for students instead of purchasing hundreds of copies per year that need to be rebound again and again. Again, this is nowhere near replacing classroom teachers but it is a small step in integrating online tools as a reliable and necessary resource for future students success in certain courses.

The second thing I found surprising was in the literature review of the evidence found. They discovered that there was no experimental studies that compared the learning effectiveness of online and face-to-face instruction for K-12 students from 1996 through 2006. I took an online learning course way back in 2004 and I'm sure they were being offered many years before I took one. I also know that this debate between which learning method is better has been going on for sometime now. The fact that a study wasn't conducted prior to 2006 baffles me. I see more pointless studies done by college students on the radio and TV everyday, but none thought this was a worthwhile study?

The third thing I found surprising was in the study that found online learning to be superior to classroom-based instruction in terms of declarative knowledge, however they were equivalent in terms of procedural learning. Declarative knowledge is really just the ability to regurgitate facts. No one needs a computer to do that, you can do the same with your library card, so I'm not so impressed with those findings. I believe they were found to be equivalent in terms of procedural learning (and in the long-run classroom-based is probably better for this anyway) because it is difficult to learn the details of completing a math problem, or finishing an experiment in science when the learner doesn't have their teacher there face-to-face.

Lastly, the one thing I disagree with is that online learning models using asynchronous communication tools are valuable. In my classroom, I have high expectations for my students and I expect them to reach their potential throughout the year. I measure their growth with different assessment tools and so forth. However, online courses that employ asynchronous communication don't hold students to a high standard. Instead it simply encourages them to do the bare minimum possible to receive a grade for their efforts. The idea of having the student learn at their own convenience is a novel one, however students will have difficulty pushing themselves when its much easier to provide the minimum effort possible. I can't see the value in an education model that doesn't inspire students to have a pursuit of knowledge beyond the course requirements.