Fed study: online learning outperforms classroom
A meta-analysis released by the U.S. Department of Education finds that undergraduate and graduate students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Students who took courses blending elements of online learning with face-to-face instruction fared best of all.
The report attributes much of the success of online learning to the fact that students in online courses often spent more time on task than students in face-to-face courses. Although the studies in the meta-analysis do not demonstrate that online learning is superior to face-to-face learning overall, the report’s authors argue that online learning is much more conducive to the expansion of learning time than is face-to-face instruction.