A meta-analysis of the comparative distance education (DE) literature between 1985 and 2002 was conducted. In total, 232 studies containing 688 independent achievement, attitude, and retention outcomes were analyzed. Overall results indicated effect sizes of essentially zero on all three measures and wide variability. This suggests that many applications of DE outperform their classroom counterparts and that many perform more poorly. Dividing achievement outcomes into synchronous and asynchronous forms of DE produced a somewhat different impression. In general, mean achievement effect sizes for synchronous applications favored classroom instruction, while effect sizes for asynchronous applications favored DE. However, significant heterogeneity remained in each subset.

/pdf/how-does-distance-education-compare-with-classroom-dh5xmepwak.pdf

How Does Distance Education Compare With Classroom Instruction? A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature

As the popularity of online education continues to rise, many colleges and universities are interested in how to best deliver course content for online learners. This study explores the ways in which taking courses through an online medium impacts student engagement, utilizing data from the National Survey of Student Engagement. Data was analyzed using a series of ordinary least squares regression models, also controlling for relevant student and institutional characteristics. The results indicated numerous significant relationships between taking online courses and student engagement for both first-year students and seniors. Those students taking greater numbers of online courses were more likely to engage in quantitative reasoning. However, they were less likely to engage in collaborative learning, student-faculty interactions, and discussions with diverse others, compared to their more traditional classroom counterparts. The students with greater numbers of online courses also reported less exposure to effective teaching practices and lower quality of interactions. The relationship between these engagement indicators and the percentage of classes taken online suggests that an online environment might benefit certain types of engagement, but may also be somewhat of a deterrent to others. Institutions should consider these findings when designing online course content, and encourage faculty to contemplate ways of encouraging student engagement across a variety of delivery types.

Online Learning in Higher Education: Exploring Advantages and Disadvantages for Engagement.

This meta-analysis research estimated and compared the differences between the academic performance of students enrolled in distance education courses, relative to those enrolled in traditional settings, as demonstrated by their final course grades/scores, within the last twenty year (1990-2009) period, further broken down to four distinct subperiods. A large k=125 of experimental and quasi-experimental studies met the established inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis (including data from over 20,000 participating students), and provided effect sizes, clearly demonstrating that: (1) In 70% of the cases, students taking courses by distance education outperformed their student counterparts in the traditionally instructed courses; (2) The overall effect size ‘d+’ (random method) was calculated as 0.257 (0.17< 95% CI <0.35); and (3) a clear upward trend of overall effect size ‘d+’ exists for the 2000-2009 decade after a decline in the second half of the 1990s. A polynomial regression confirmed a parabolic solution with a clear minimum point. The research, theoretical, and policy implications of these results are discussed.

/pdf/twenty-years-of-research-on-the-academic-performance-3v38xzcnn5.pdf

Twenty Years of Research on the Academic Performance Differences Between Traditional and Distance Learning: Summative Meta-Analysis and Trend Examination

A systematic review of the effectiveness and efficiency networked ICT in education: A state of the field report to the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada and Industry Canada.

This study examined the potential of utilizing the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Online Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) as instruments in predicting academic success as measured by overall grade point average (GPA). These instruments were of particular interest because the MSLQ was designed to measure student motivation and the OSLQ was designed to include self-regulated learning within a distance learning environment. Participants of the study were 134 graduate students recruited from a large, urban university in the southeast region of the United States. Participants provided general demographic information and completed one survey that was composed of 81 questions from the MSLQ and 24 questions from the OSLQ. Results indicated that neither instrument was shown to be a more accurate predictor of academic success as measured by overall GPA. Results also indicated that independent variables such as age, gender, graduate status, department, and campus had no significant impact on either MSLQ or OSLQ scores.

The Use of Self-Regulated Learning Measure Questionnaires as a Predictor of Academic Success

This research illustrated a new, parsimonious model that investigators interested in distance education can use to ask meaningful questions about the relative quality of distance education courses (Dominguez & Ridley, 1999). The approach removed the emphasis from student-level data and placed it upon course-based data. Sample data comparing online and traditional higher education courses covering nine disciplines were reported. These data revealed that preparation for advanced courses was statististically equivalent whether the course prerequisites were online courses or their traditional classroom counterparts. The article further explored the usefulness of this framework for identifying a significant discipline-related difference in the relative effectiveness of online and traditional prerequisites as preparation for advanced courses. In this article, we have further explored an alternative framework for assessing distance education courses (Dominguez & Ridley, 1999). The article reviews the rationale for our new approach and presents a new analysis with updated data to demonstrate an application beyond our earlier presentation. The new application explores an apparent departmental difference found in the new analysis. Rationale Student performance in the here and now of a distance education course is typically at the center of assessment of their effectiveness. That is, investigators usually attend to how well students score on tests, exams, and assignments within the context of the distance education course itself. If comparisons with student performance in traditional classroom settings are to be made, they generally involve courses taken contemporaneously with the distance education course. In this way, assessments of distance education programs have amassed results that resemble a series of snapshots looking at the program and student performance on a semester-by-semester basis. Using the student-level data within a particular time frame, institutions, distance education programs, and individual faculty have created a detailed portrait of distance education students and have established the comparability of student learning between distance education and traditional settings. This is a good beginning. Now that institutions have overcome the initial hurdles of establishing the first-generation distance education programs, the need arises for more elaborate, action-oriented information. Focusing on student-level data tells only a limited tale. For example, generating a profile of the "successful" distance education student does not provide institutions with practical information for program improvement or refinement. What can an institution do with this piece of data? It is anathema in higher education to deny students entry into a course based on their demographic profile. Indeed, pushing the envelope of students' abilities is at the core of instruction. Neither does the information really help out individual faculty members interested in improving distance education students' performance. Faculty members simply do not have the power to age a student five years, produce several offspring for them, or boost their G.P.A. half a point. What else can be done to provide institutions and faculty members with action-oriented information about the quality of instruction found in distance education programs compared with instruction in on-campus classes? We propose a two-pronged shift in distance education investigations. The first shift removes the emphasis on distance education students and places it on the course itself. The second expands the scope of investigations to include distance education students' subsequent performance in other classes. Using these parameters, such an assessment would question how well distance education courses prepare students for further study. Moreover, such an approach would allow institutions to compare student preparation in distance education settings versus their preparation in traditional education settings. …

Assessing Distance Education Courses and Discipline Differences in Their Effectiveness.

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Assessing Distance Education Courses and Discipline Differences in Their Effectiveness.