The first major surprise to me was the stated gap in effectiveness of online learning programs by subject in the Zhao, Lei, Lai, and Tan (2005) study. Distance-learning being more effective for computer science students makes sense, if only for the predictably higher level of technology competence. But the gap between subjects like business and social studies would seem to have little background technology differential.
The second surprise, and a welcome one was the extreme level of organization employed by the studied online program. Online course I've taken in the past tended to have a disjointed feel to them, as if they were cobbled together or translated poorly from a blueprint of a face-to-face class. To see such a rigid structure in the online arena fills me with ideas!
The third surprise was the way in which the demographic information was treated in the conclusion. The drastically higher percentage of older students using the online option my certainly have skewed the numbers, given the performance improvement I would expect to see from more experienced candidates. While the conclusion still seems valid, I would like to see an adjusted/normalized analysis to help reinforce the point.
My academic concentration in undergrad was History. If I was enrolled in any online History classes, I know I would have trouble concentrating and taking the class seriously. Having online technology classes makes sense. Some other subjects online don't really work.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see how organized the online teacher prep program was. I feel that a teacher prep program needs to be organized in order to successful complete the training to become a teacher. It makes me wonder, if there is an on-campus teacher prep program at that school, is it as organized as the online prep program?