Online Learning Efficacy Research Database

Describes studies with undergraduate business students concerning the use of technology for teaching. Findings indicated that the commonly-accepted “no-significant-difference effect” did not occur; in fact, students performed better when offered face-to-face interactions 
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As universities extend their distance education offerings to reach more time- and place-bound students, the degree to which online students are successful, as compared to their classroom counterparts, is of interest to accreditation review boards and others charged with assessment. Teaching faculty use information about the effectiveness of their instruction to evaluate and improve the learning experience. By comparing persistence and performance measures from the author's five semesters of online and traditional sections of a required undergraduate business statistics course, this paper provides evidence that while there are significant differences in persistence between the two cases, accomplishment of the learning objectives, as measured by the final grade in the course for those students who persist, is independent of the mode of instruction. 
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The proliferation of economics courses offered partly or completely online (Arnold Katz and William E. Becker, 1999) raises important questions about the effects of the new technologies on student learning. Do students enrolled in online courses learn more or less than students taught face-to-face? Can we identify any student characteristics, such as gender, race, ACT scores, or grade averages, that are associated with better outcomes in one technology or another? How would the online (or face-to-face) students fare if they had taken the course using the alternative technology? This paper addresses these questions using student data from our Principles of Microeconomics courses at Michigan State University. 
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This paper assesses the differences in performance and attitudes of students taught online versus onsite. Students completed a course evaluation designed to determine student satisfaction in specific areas. Student performance was measured by means of a comprehensive exam that tested all material covered in the course. Results support the contention that students in online courses learn as much or more than students in traditional onsite courses and are as satisfied with the course and the instruction as their onsite counterparts. 
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The purpose of this study was to compare students enrolled in an introductory family and consumer sciences undergraduate consumer economics course on selected academic, perceptual, and demographic characteristics by whether they received instruction in a traditional classroom setting or through an electronic classroom format (specifically the Internet). Students enrolled in the online section of the course scored higher on the achievement posttest after controlling for pretest differences in the groups. In addition, students in the online section self-reported that they spent more time working on the course assignments. Researchers recommended that future research incorporate more extensive demographic characteristics to determine if they interact with the type of instruction received. In addition, experimental methods were recommended for further studies to more effectively remove the effects of extraneous variables. 
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Outcomes assessments were conducted with a pretest/post-test desin in an online non-majors' biology course that included laboratory and lecture components. Data were compared with those of students at the same college enrolled in the same course with the same instructor on-campus. No significant differences were found in outcomes for students in the two modes of instruction. 
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College students (134 women and 55 men) participated in introductory psychology courses that were offered largely online (on the World Wide Web) or in a lecture format. Student comprehension skills were inferred from their scores on a multimedia comprehension battery. The learning of content knowledge was affected interactively by comprehension skill level and course format. Differences between format increased with comprehension skill such that the Web-based course advantage became greater as comprehension skill increased. This same pattern was not seen when self-reports of comprehension ability were used as the predictor. Furthermore, comprehension skill did not predict course satisfaction. Generally, students of all skill levels preferred the lecture courses. 
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At the University of Georgia, HORT 3020 (Introduction to Fruit Crops) is a two-credit survey of the botanical characteristics, taxonomy, and production practices of the world's major fruit crops. It is offered via traditional classroom instruction, and as a distance education (DE) course through the University System of Georgia Independent Study program. The DE version of the course is designed to be identical in content, final exam, and grading scale. However, due to the nature of independent study, the end-of-topic evaluations are open-book, written assignments in the DE course, whereas students in the classroom version have closed-book quizzes at the end of each topic. Student performance in the two versions of the course was compared over a 3-year period (May 1998 to May 2001) by analyzing scores on end-of-topic evaluations, final exams, and overall course grades. Students in the DE version had higher scores on end-of-topic evaluations in all 3 years, higher scores on a comprehensive final exam in 2 of 3 years, and consequently higher overall course grades than classroom students in all 3 years. Better performance of DE over classroom students may have been related to 1) qualitative differences in end-of-topic evaluations (written assignments versus quizzes), 2) differences in student demographics (nontraditional students in DE, traditional undergraduates in classroom), 3) the elective (DE) versus required (classroom) nature of the courses, or 4) differences in course duration (1 year for DE, 15 weeks for classroom). Equal or better performance of DE students suggests that survey courses such as Introduction to Fruit Crops can be offered via distance education without compromising learning outcomes. 
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Abstract not available. 
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Of 29 industrial technology students in an action research project, 15 learned in a traditional classroom, then online in two 3-week periods (different subjects); 14 students reversed that order. Test and project results showed no significant differences. Interaction was rated more favorably in the traditional setting. 
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