The Tech Edvocate

Top Menu

  • Advertisement
  • Apps
  • Home Page
  • Home Page Five (No Sidebar)
  • Home Page Four
  • Home Page Three
  • Home Page Two
  • Home Tech2
  • Icons [No Sidebar]
  • Left Sidbear Page
  • My Account
  • My Speaking Page
  • Newsletter Sign Up Confirmation
  • Newsletter Unsubscription
  • Our Brands
  • Page Example
  • Protected Content
  • Register
  • Request a Product Review
  • Shop
  • Shortcodes Examples
  • Signup
  • Start Here
    • Governance
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • The Edvocate
  • Topics
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise

Main Menu

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Edupedia
    • The Edvocate Podcast
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
    • Request a Product Review
  • Apps
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • Pedagogue

logo

The Tech Edvocate

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
        • My Speaking Page
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Edupedia
    • The Edvocate Podcast
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
    • Request a Product Review
  • Apps
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • Pedagogue
  • How Learning Online Helps Students Pursue Their Passions

  • How M-Learning is Transforming Online Education

  • Free Resources to Help Everyone Navigate Online Learning

  • K-12 Districts Keep Students Safe with Web Filters and Monitors

  • Fun Resources for Online Learning

  • How Speech-Language Therapists Can Prepare for Teaching Remotely

  • Promoting Online Access With Hotspots, Laptops, and Planning

  • How Technology Can Transform Learning

  • How Can Technology Coaches And Content Coaches Work Together?

  • Introducing Game Design Into the Modern Classroom

EdTech News
Home›EdTech News›Study finds taking intro statistics class online does no harm

Study finds taking intro statistics class online does no harm

By Matthew Lynch
October 26, 2016
Spread the love

This article was written by Jill Barshay

Online education has grown so fast that more than a third of all college students — more than 7 million — took at least one course online in 2012. That’s according to the most recent 2014 annual survey by the Babson Research Group, which has been tracking online education growth since 2002. Yet nagging worries remain about whether an online education is a substandard education.

The Babson survey itself noted that even as more students are taking online courses, the growth rate is slowing and some university leaders are becoming more skeptical about how much students are really learning. For example, the percent of academic leaders who say that online education is the same or superior to face-to-face instruction dipped to 74 percent from 77 percent. That was the first reversal in a decade-long trend of rising optimism.

Opinions are one thing, but what do we actually know about online learning outcomes? Unfortunately, there have been thousands of studies, but precious few that meet scientific rigor. One big problem is that not many studies have randomly assigned some students to online courses and others to traditional classes. Without random assignment, it’s quite possible that the kinds of students who choose to take online courses are different from the kinds of students who enroll in traditional courses. Perhaps, for example, students who sign up for online classes are more likely to be motivated autodidacts who would learn more in any environment.  Researchers can’t conclude if online learning is better or worse if the student characteristics are different in online courses at the onset.

On June 3, 2014, an important study, “Interactive learning online at public universities: Evidence from a six-campus randomized trial,” published earlier in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management,  won the highest rating for scientific rigor from What Works Clearinghouse, a division inside the Department of Education that seeks evidence for which teaching practices work. The study was written by a team of education researchers led by economist William G. Bowen, the former president of Princeton University and the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and Matthew M. Chingos of the Brookings Institution.

The online study looked at more than 600 students who were randomly assigned to introductory statistics classes at six different university campuses. Half took an online stats class developed by Carnegie Mellon University, supplemented by one hour a week of face-to-face time with an instructor. The other half took traditional stats classes that met for three hours a week with an instructor. The authors of the study found that learning outcomes were essentially the same. About 80 percent of the online students passed the course, compared with 76 percent of the face-to-face students, which, allowing for statistical measurement errors, is virtually identical.

The university campuses that participated in the fall 2011 trial were the University at Albany (SUNY), SUNY Institute of Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Towson University (University of Maryland), Baruch College (CUNY) and City College (CUNY).

It’s worth emphasizing that this was not a pure online class, but a hybrid one. One hour a week of face-to-face time with an instructor amounts to a third of the face-to-face time in the control group. Also, the Carnegie Mellon course not only required students to crunch data themselves using a statistical software package, but it also embedded interactive assessments into each instructional activity. The software gives feedback to both the student and the instructor to let them know how well the student understood each concept. However, the Carnegie Mellon software didn’t tailor instruction for each student. For example, if students answered questions incorrectly, the software didn’t direct them to extra practice problems or reading.

“We believe it is an early representative of what will likely be a wave of even more sophisticated systems in the not-distant future,” the authors wrote.

The Department of Education reviewed only the analysis of passing rates in the Carnegie Mellon stats class trial. But Bowen and the study’s authors went further, and found that final exam scores and performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy were also similar between the students who took the

class in person and online. They also conducted several speculative cost simulations and found that hybrid models of instruction could save universities a lot of money in instructor costs in large introductory courses in the long run.

But in the end, the authors offer this sobering conclusion:

In the case of a topic as active as online learning, where millions of dollars are being invested by a wide variety of entities, we might expect inflated claims of spectacular successes. The findings in this study warn against too much hype. To the best of our knowledge, there is no compelling evidence that online learning systems available today—not even highly interactive systems, of which there are very few—can in fact deliver improved educational outcomes across the board, at scale, on campuses other than the one where the system was born, and on a sustainable basis. This is not to deny, however, that these systems have great potential. Vigorous efforts should be made to continue to explore and assess uses of both the relatively simple systems that are proliferating, often to good effect, and more sophisticated systems that are still in their infancy. There is every reason to expect these systems to improve over time, and thus it is not unreasonable to speculate that learning outcomes will also improve.

This article originally appeared on The Hechinger Report.


Spread the love
TagsEdtechedtechchatelearningSTEAMSTEM
Previous Article

In global education race, U.S. is falling ...

Next Article

Should K-12 Classrooms Get on the Online ...

Matthew Lynch

Related articles More from author

  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

    5 Must Have Behavior Apps, Tools, and Resources

    August 10, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

    Using Simulations to Create Virtual Learning Experiences

    April 8, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Online Learning & eLearning

    Internet addiction and online gaming disorder on the rise

    June 7, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • EdTech NewsHigher Education EdTech

    Social media and video games in classrooms can yield valuable data for teachers

    July 4, 2016
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

    7 Must Have Language Learning Apps, Tools and Resources

    August 2, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Best of the Best ListsEarly Childhood & K-12 EdTechHigher Education EdTech

    The Tech Edvocate’s List of 50 Must-Read K-12 EdTech Blogs

    January 17, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch

1 comment

  1. Ted Brown 20 December, 2016 at 16:37 Reply

    I am always getting new insight from your posts. This is excellent advice on the advantages of online learning and the way it has provided learning material to the public.
    Your posts and articles are always a breath of fresh air!

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • EdTech NewsHigher Education EdTech

    Is online education good or bad? And is this really the right question?

  • Ask An ExpertEarly Childhood & K-12 EdTechHigher Education EdTech

    For Edtech to Actually Work, it has to Embrace Neuroscience

  • Child Development TechParent & Family Tech

    What to Do if Your Kid Becomes Addicted to Tech

Search

Login & Registration

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • How Learning Online Helps Students Pursue Their Passions

    By Matthew Lynch
    April 9, 2021
  • How M-Learning is Transforming Online Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    April 8, 2021
  • Free Resources to Help Everyone Navigate Online Learning

    By Matthew Lynch
    April 7, 2021
  • K-12 Districts Keep Students Safe with Web Filters and Monitors

    By Matthew Lynch
    April 6, 2021
  • Fun Resources for Online Learning

    By Matthew Lynch
    April 5, 2021
  • 20 Top Virtual Reality Apps that are Changing Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 11, 2017
  • 7 Ways Technology Is Impacting Modern Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 4, 2017
  • Why Mobile Technology Enhances Instruction

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 14, 2016
  • What is the Future of Online Learning in Higher Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    April 2, 2018
  • 7 Roles for Artificial Intelligence in Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    May 5, 2018
  • K-12 Districts Keep Students Safe with Web Filters and Monitors - The Tech Edvocate
    on
    April 7, 2021

    10 Ways To Make YouTube Safer For Your Students

    […] Youtube has a ...
  • 20 Innovative Techniques to Help Kids Realize Their Academic Potential - The Edvocate
    on
    April 6, 2021

    33 of the Best Apps for Kids in the 10th Grade

    […] of the Best ...
  • 20 Innovative Techniques to Help Kids Realize Their Academic Potential - The Edvocate
    on
    April 6, 2021

    28 of the Best Apps for Kids in the Sixth Grade

    […] 28 of the ...
  • 20 Innovative Techniques to Help Kids Realize Their Academic Potential - The Edvocate
    on
    April 6, 2021

    39 of the Best Apps for Kids in the Second Grade

    […] 39 of the ...
  • The 9 Best Business Books for College Students - The Edvocate
    on
    April 6, 2021

    How to Leverage Technology to Engage Parents at Scale

    […] Berkshire Hathaway Inc ...

EdTech Policy & Reform

  • EdTech Policy & Reform

    How Much Bias Is Okay in Your School?

    Spread the loveThe algorithm has proven itself to be a handy tool when it comes to solving education problems. It’s also not without bias.  You may be wondering how some ...
  • EdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    Edtech Should Complement Good Pedagogy, Not Attempt to Replace It

    Spread the loveThe newest generation of edtech is downright amazing; it’s no wonder that various education stakeholders might be a little excited about its potential to transform education. However, edtech ...
  • EdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    How to Teach Kids to Communicate in This Digital Age

    Spread the loveWhen even the youngest children are spending the equivalent of a full work day looking at screens, it is perhaps no surprise that parents are wondering how to ...
  • EdTech FuturesEdTech Policy & Reform

    3 Reasons Why India Will Be A Leader in the EdTech Industry in the 21st ...

    Spread the loveAccording to a joint report by KPMG and Google, the online education industry is expected to grow at a healthy rate of 8 times to become a $1.96B ...
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    How Does Technology Immersion Shape the Brain?

    Spread the loveDo you wonder what all of the screen time we have is really doing to our brains? As edtech continues to rise in prominence throughout the world, this ...

EdTech Startups & Businesses

  • EdTech Startups & BusinessesOnline Learning & eLearning

    Using Nudge Theory in Your Corporate Online Learning Classes

    Spread the loveAfter reading this headline, you may be asking yourself, what is nudge theory? Nudge theory centers on positive reinforcement and inferred suggestions to motivate a person to complete ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Bringing Education into the Business World

    Spread the loveU.S. businesses spent nearly $20 billion on training in 2019. That number decreased by roughly half from the year before. Companies aren’t providing fewer professional development opportunities for ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    You Must Include These 3 Things in Your Edtech Business Plan

    Spread the loveDo you have a business plan? It’s the one question you’re going to be asked a lot as you begin your edtech business. The reasons to write a ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Edtech Marketing Ideas to Implement Right Now

    Spread the loveEven if you do have the most exceptional edtech product or service in the world, you’ve still got to market it. Your sales and your success depend on ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    How Your Edtech Startup Can Make the Leap from Failure to Funded

    Spread the loveThe best ideas in edtech are often only ideas. They never become a reality because they lack the funding they need to get off the ground. Taking an ...

Digital Equity

  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital EquityEdTech & Innovation

    Promoting Online Access With Hotspots, Laptops, and Planning

    Spread the loveWhen becoming a leader in the field of education, it is important to consider equity. Some students may not have access to devices or the internet from their ...
  • Digital EquityDigital Leadership

    How Can You Assess the Tech Needs of Your Students Outside of School?

    Spread the loveToday, I received an email from the middle school principal in Los Angeles. She explained to me that the school that she ran was in one of the ...
  • Digital Equity

    It Is Time for the Edtech Industry to Stop Denying Its Equity and Race Problem

    Spread the loveThe EdTech industry is dominated by white employees, white leaders, and white entrepreneurs. If you doubt this statement, just attend an Edtech conference. Admittedly, educators and others don’t ...
  • Digital Equity

    How OER Can Help Overcome the Higher Education Equity Barrier

    Spread the loveThe cornerstone of the American dream is the ability to succeed in life regardless of one’s family of origin. And, for most people, that requires a college education. ...

EdTech Futures

  • EdTech FuturesOnline Learning & eLearning

    IT Trends To Watch As Higher Education Moves Into a New Decade

    Spread the loveEdtech couldn’t have hoped for a better launch into the new decade than the push the industry received from COVID-19. Even the most tech-resistant institutions and individuals have ...
  • EdTech Futures

    4 Emerging EdTech Trends in 2021

    Spread the loveCovid-19 has not only changed education as we know it, but it has forced education technology (EdTech) to up its game. EdTech has been crucial since the start of this ...
  • Adult EducationEdTech & InnovationEdTech FuturesEducation LeadershipEducational LeadershipHigher EducationHigher Education EdTechThe Future of Education

    Education Technology and the Future of Higher Ed Leadership

    Spread the loveEducation Technology (EdTech) has had a more significant impact on education than anyone expected. Now its effects are reaching into the field of higher education. In this article, ...
  • EdTech Futures

    Top Edtech Trends for 2021

    Spread the loveAre you ready to look ahead? Schools will soon be reflecting on what’s been working this year and what’s not. They’ll also begin thinking about their budgets for ...
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech Futures

    In the Wake of Teacher Shortages, Schools are Turning to Virtual Teachers

    Spread the loveTeaching was once a greatly respected position, and today, morally it still seems to be of high value to many Americans. Institutionally, however, teaching no longer seems to ...

About Us

Since technology is not going anywhere and does more good than harm, adapting is the best course of action. That is where The Tech Edvocate comes in. We plan to cover the PreK-12 and Higher Education EdTech sectors and provide our readers with the latest news and opinion on the subject. From time to time, I will invite other voices to weigh in on important issues in EdTech. We hope to provide a well-rounded, multi-faceted look at the past, present, the future of EdTech in the US and internationally.

We started this journey back in June 2016, and we plan to continue it for many more years to come. I hope that you will join us in this discussion of the past, present and future of EdTech and lend your own insight to the issues that are discussed.

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

Contact Us

The Tech Edvocate
5322 Markel Road, Suite 104
Richmond, VA 23230
(601) 630-5238
[email protected]

Follow us

Copyright © 2021 Matthew Lynch. All rights reserved.