Learning in an Online Format versus an In-Class Format: An Experimental Study

The past five years have borne witness to a revolution in education with an acceleration in the use of online technologies to assist or, in many cases, supplant traditional modes of instruction (Bjorner 1993; Velsmid 1997). Peterson's Guide reports that nearly 400 accredited colleges and universities in North America currently employ online instruction of some sort (Velsmid). In addition, Herther (1997) noted that over 150 accredited institutions offer entire bachelor's degree programs to students who rarely, if ever, visit campus. The asynchronous nature of many online programs together with their accessibility from home, office, or hotel room are obvious advantages to students (see Bjorner). Additionally, as the cost of traditional education increases, market pressures are forcing more and more institutions to consider online offerings (see Gubernick and Ebeling 1997) that do not incur the costs of dormitories, athletic programs, etc. The Florida State University system expects online programs to save about 40% of the cost of in-class programs ("Caught" 1998). It should be noted, however, that Duke University charges a premium for its online MBA ($82,500 vs. $50,000 for its on-campus equivalent). As more and more online courses and programs proliferate, the questions of quality and comparability of such instruction with traditional methods naturally arise. Gubernick & Ebeling report a study conducted by the University of Phoenix (a private, for-profit institution) that demonstrated standardized achievement test scores of its online graduates were 5% to 10% higher than graduates of competing on-campus programs at three Arizona public universities. While one may legitimately question the degree of comparability of the subject populations, these results are similar to those summarized by Vasarhelyi and Graham (1997) in which investigators at the University of Michigan concluded that computer-based instruction yielded higher average scores than traditional instruction. To date, the most methodologically sound investigation to evaluate the effectiveness of online instruction was conducted by Gerald Schutte at Cal State, Northridge (as cited by McCollum 1997). "Schutte randomly divided his statistics class into two groups. One attended class as usual, listening to lectures, handing in homework assignments, and taking examinations. The other took an online version of the course, completing assignments on a World Wide Web site, posting questions and comments to an electronic discussion list, and meeting with their professor in an Internet chat room. After an orientation session, students in the virtual class went to Dr. Schutte's classroom only for their midterm and final exams. On both tests, Dr. Schutte found, the wired students outscored their traditional counterparts by an average of 20 percent. " The present study extends Schutte's paradigm by looking at pre and posttest scores of students enrolled in online and inclass versions of the same class taught by the same instructors over a variety of disciplines. Methodology Students enrolled in five different undergraduate online courses during the Fall semester 1997 participated in a test-retest study designed to measure their learning of the course material. These students were compared with students enrolled in traditional inclass courses taught by the same instructors. The course titles were Organization Behavior, Personal Finance, Managerial Accounting, Sociological Foundations of Education, and Environmental Studies. Student participation was voluntary; names were only used to ensure a matching of the pre / posttest results. Subjects In total, 40 undergraduate students were enrolled in the online courses and 59 undergraduate students were enrolled in the inclass courses during the testing period. Pretests Instructors designed pretests to measure the level of knowledge students had of the course content prior to the start of the course. …