Online Learning Efficacy Research Database

This study employed a randomized experiment to examine differences in teacher and student learning from professional development (PD) in two modalities: online and face-to-face. The study explores whether there are differences in teacher knowledge and beliefs, teacher classroom practice, and student learning outcomes related to PD modality. Comparison of classroom practice and student learning outcomes, normally difficult to establish in PD research, is facilitated by the use of a common set of curriculum materials as the content for PD and subsequent teaching. Findings indicate that teachers and students exhibited significant gains in both conditions, and that there was no significant difference between conditions. We discuss implications for the delivery of teacher professional learning. 
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This study determined equivalent performance and transfer to practical skills in plant identification that occurred using a computer-based simulated lab compared to an original hands-on lab. United Kingdom undergraduate students and continuing education adults at a university participated. Significant differences were assessed between students using simulated and traditional labs considering academic scores, students’ abilities to transfer learning from classroom to hands-on tasks, and student assessed quality of learning. All course activities were identical except that the experimental group did lab activities with an online simulation, and the control group used in-person, hands-on labs. While academic scores were not different, the experimental group performed significantly better in transference of learning and indicated overall satisfaction significantly higher than the control group. 
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Many studies have compared traditional face-to-face courses to online or distance education courses. The purpose of this study was to examine academic performance, perceptions, and experiences of participants enrolled in different academic learning environments. Pre and Post Content Knowledge Tests and a student evaluation were used to measure perceptions and experiences of participants. From the first result (perception), no significant difference (p > .05) was found between the two class formats in course evaluation, showing college students had similar perceptions regardless of class format. With the second result (experience), a significant difference (p = .031< .05) was found between the two class formats in self-evaluation, indicating participants in this study had better experiences from the traditional face-to-face class format. 
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While online and face-to-face (F2F) courses have been compared in numerous studies, there has been a lack of focus on online chemistry courses. This study was conducted to compare the success of students instructed in an online or F2F general chemistry course for non-majors. One hundred forty six exam questions were categorized according to Bloom's revised taxonomy and student success on each problem was analyzed. Comparison of online and F2F courses showed significant differences at the lowest order of thinking, "remember," with online students performing better than F2F students. A similar result was seen with the next order of thinking, "understand," but there were no significant differences observed between online and F2F students for exam questions at the "analyze" level. The observed advantage for online students may be because online instruction promotes better memorization of facts or because students good at memorization gravitate towards online courses. No significant differences were seen between online and F2F courses when comparing the various chemistry topics covered in the exams. Online instruction appears to be as effective as F2F instruction when teaching introductory chemistry topics. 
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This paper reports on a research study that focused on equity in learning as reflected in the final grades of online and on-site students from the same post-secondary mathematics course taught repeatedly over 10 semesters from Fall 2005 through Spring 2011. On-site students attended regular class sessions, while online students only attended an orientation session and a final exam. Mean final course grades for all online and on-site students were compared statistically to see if there was a significant difference in learning. The findings revealed significant differences in online and on-site students' final grades, in favor of on-site student achievement. Statistical tests were also conducted on a number of subsets drawn from all students' final grades in order to search for any underlying nuances that might exist. When the first three semesters of data were removed from the dataset, no significant difference was found between the mean scores for on-site and online students for the seven most recent semesters. It is reasonable to conclude that it is possible for students in both on-site and online sections of a course to achieve equity in mathematics learning as measured by final course grades. 
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The study is a quasi-experimental research which determines the success of hybrid method of teaching to an e-community of learners in cyberspace over the face to face method of teaching and tries to compare the academic performance of the students. Two groups of students are chosen, a control group and an experimental group. The traditional method of teaching is used in the control group and the hybrid method to an e-community of students is implemented in the experimental group. After the groups have been selected, an experimental variable is introduced to the experimental group only, leaving the control group as it was. After the experimental variable has been introduced, the researcher measured both groups on the dependent variable. With the creation of e-community in the cyberspace, student’s capacity is limited to the following: to upload, to read or download. While, the teachers can perform the read, delete, edit capacity in the system. The system (e-community/e-group) is available 24/7 in the internet so the students have unlimited access time to learning and they can do it anywhere, anytime. It's vitally important that teachers should keep/stay in touch online with their students as much as possible. This is to make their presence felt and to motivate student participation in the e-community. Teachers should set their limits clear from the outset. They should inform students to allow them reasonable number of hours for an online response to queries. 
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The objective of this study was to assess if online teaching delivery produces comparable student test performance as the traditional face-to-face approach irrespective of academic aptitude. This study involves a quasi-experimental comparison of student performance in an undergraduate health science statistics course partitioned in two ways. The first partition involves one group of students taught with a traditional face-to-face classroom approach and the other through a completely online instructional approach. The second partition of the subjects categorized the academic aptitude of the students into groups of higher and lower academically performing based on their assignment grades during the course. Controls that were placed on the study to reduce the possibility of confounding variables were: the same instructor taught both groups covering the same subject information, using the same assessment methods and delivered over the same period of time. The results of this study indicate that online teaching delivery is as effective as a traditional face-to-face approach in terms of producing comparable student test performance but only if the student is academically higher performing. For academically lower performing students, the online delivery method produced significantly poorer student test results compared to those lower performing students taught in a traditional face-to-face environment. 
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As public administration programs extend their online education offerings to reach more time- and place-bound students, and as accredited institutions become interested in documenting teaching and learning effectiveness, the degree to which online students are successful as compared to their classroom counterparts is of interest to teaching faculty and others charged with assessment. By comparing student performance measures and assessments of learning experience from both online and traditional sections of a required graduate public administration research methods course taught by the same instructor, this paper provides evidence that student performance as measured by grade is independent of the mode of instruction. Persistence in an online environment may be more challenging in research methods classes than in other public administration classes. Furthermore, participation may be less intimidating, and the quality and quantity of interaction may be increased in online classes. 
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To test the concept of multiuser 3D virtual environments as media to teach semester-long courses, we developed a software prototype called Aeroquest. An aerospace design course—offered to 135 second-year students for university credits in Fall 2009—was divided into two groups: the real-world group attending lectures, physically, in a campus hall and the virtual-world group attending lectures, remotely, in Aeroquest. To date, numerous studies on the educational use of multiuser virtual environments have been reported in the literature. However, among studies on virtual-world-based courses, our investigation was one of the firsts to employ learning outcomes (rather than affective states) that were objectively measured (rather than subjectively reported) against a control group. We found that the virtual-world group achieved the performance benchmark, defined by the exam score of the real-world group, within a 95% confidence interval, suggesting the virtual worlds' untapped potential as a teaching platform in early engineering courses—especially for distance education. 
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Second language writing, not unlike other language skills, is an area of practice requiring due attention and meticulously planned instruction. With a prevalent shift of paradigm from product oriented to process-oriented approaches to writing instruction, such learner variables as language learning strategies came to the forefront. Among second language writing strategies, the locus of attention on pre-writing strategies has by no means been ample. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of pre-writing strategies in ameliorating the writing ability of second language learners. Furthermore, since computer technology has had a lot to offer in pedagogical environments, the implementation of pre-writing strategies-based instruction was examined through different modes of input delivery, i.e. web-based and hybrid environments (in addition to conventional classroom teaching). A sample of second language learners was chosen from among male and female English majors and was divided into four groups: control, conventional, web-based, and hybrid groups. A homogenizing writing pretest was administered to ascertain that the learners were not very different in terms of their writing ability. After five sessions of treatment, excluding the pretest and posttest sessions, a writing posttest was given to the students, the results of which revealed that the three experimental groups had significantly outperformed the control group, and hence indicating the effectiveness of teaching pre-writing strategies. There was not, however, a meaningful difference between the conventional and web-based groups. The hybrid group, on the other hand, had excelled all the other groups. 
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