Study reveals better student performance in online courses

Masrissa Incitti, The Snapper: Millersville University

It is common sense that when students spend exuberant amounts of time procrastinating online, checking out social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, their grade point averages go down.

That is why it is surprising that a new study conducted by SRI International (a private research and development company) for the Department of Education says, “On average, students in online learning conditions perform better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”This study was done over a 12 year span from 1996–2008 focusing primarily on colleges and adult continuing-education programs varying from medical training to military, with a small focus on K-12 settings. The report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. According to the analysis for the Department of Education, students doing some or the entire course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom scoring in the 50th percentile. This may seem like a small difference, but statistically it is a huge breakthrough.“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing – it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.Thankfully the traditional classroom setting is far from being eliminated, but based on this report, students will definitely see an expansion in the online components that are added to courses. Jocelyn Gilmore, a senior, says, “I’m not surprised that students perform better in online courses because when you take an online course, you’re essentially teaching yourself the material and you have to be able to manage your time and be motivated in order to do both.” Jocelyn recently took an online course over the summer and found that she did not mind the atmosphere of an online learning environment and would definitely take another online course, as long as it was not during the summer.