Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education)

Exploring the virtual classroom: What students need to know (and teachers should consider)

Technological improvements in many countries have meant that institutions offering distance education programmes now have more options available to them to communicate and interact with their students, and increasingly, attention is being turned to the potential of Web2 technologies to facilitate synchronous interaction. This study explores the affordances and limitations of an online virtual classroom, Adobe Connect Pro, when used in the learning programmes of two groups of undergraduate and postgraduate education students. Results indicate that while both groups gained value from using the classroom, they also found it a completely new environment, and one to which many had trouble transferring the interaction and communication skills developed in other contexts. The reasons for this related to three specific areas of knowledge – technical, procedural and operational, that were identified as being critical to student performance in this environment. The study suggests that educators and course designers need to embed strategies into their online offerings to enable students to develop these, if they are to gain substantial benefit from the availability of virtual classrooms. Additionally, the study identified that when making design decisions about online learning environments, it is very much a matter of horses for courses when selecting tools for specific purposes. While the virtual classroom proved useful for developing social connection and a sense of community, it may not be so beneficial for supporting deeper learning

Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study.

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness. Our exploratory study focused on the effects of cultural diversity and ICT on team effectiveness. Interviews with 41 team members from nine countries employed by a Fortune 500 corporation were analyzed. Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision‐making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e‐mail, teleconferencing combined with e‐Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media

What influences student participation in asynchronous online discussions

Asynchronous online discussions are widely used in online and blended learning courses. Participation by adult learners can be encouraged by the contributions of teachers, and when online groups are given well-structured tasks that are assessed. The introduction of such discussions to a pre-existing short course in mentorship for qualified health care professionals offered an opportunity to compare participation by different groups studying concurrently. This was done by counting numbers of student contributions to twenty-four different online groups, regardless of length or content. This showed that the contribution of teachers was not an important factor in influencing student participation, though individual students who contributed prolifically tended to encourage their fellow group members to contribute more. These results may not be generalizable: the course was short, the discussions focused on a well-structured and assessed task, and the learners were mature

ONLINE LEARNING IN A RURAL SCHOOL SETTING

Background: Online learning is a growing delivery model for education; however, there exists a void in the literature regarding the adoption of online learning models in rural K-12 school systems. Purpose: To provide pertinent data to the rural school administrator so that they may make an informed decision in regards to the potential implementation of asynchronous online learning within their school and/or district. Literature Review: Explores the history, impact on student outcomes, graduation rates, cost effectiveness and student engagement factors in regards to online learning. Research Design: A quantitative ex-post facto, causal-comparative design was used while embracing Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Data Collection and Analysis: Student achievement data were collected from a rural high school where some students participated in an asynchronous online learning environment while other students participated in the traditional face-to-face environment. Results: Students participating in asynchronous online learning environments performed below students in traditional learning environments for all four subjects (a) English Language Arts, (b) mathematics, (c) science, and (d) social studies, on both metrics, test score and percentile rank. Conclusion: Although this study would probably not result in the exclusion of online learning in rural settings, it may assist school boards and principals to consider the inclusion of online learning carefully, before extensive financial input occurs. The results also assist with identifying key pitfalls to avoid when establishing online learning environments

The Temporal Dimension of Electronic Meetings: A Study of Synchronous and Asynchronous Idea Generation

Electronic meeting systems can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of group discussions, but relatively little research has investigated use of the technology in asynchronous environments. In this study, five groups of 10 students participated in synchronous legislative sessions and five groups of 10 met in asynchronous settings. Results showed that there were no differences in meeting process satisfaction, production blocking, evaluation apprehension, and total and relevant comments generated, but synchronous groups believed there was more participation and were more satisfied with the comments. Although there could be less feeling of social presence, use of asynchronous, distributed meetings might become more prevalent as groups seek to reduce travel

Examining the Difference Between Asynchronous and Synchronous Training

For my project, we chose to do a thesis so that it would better help me out in the future in the case I wanted to get my PhD. My thesis so far has been to develop software that will help POD sites better be able to train their volunteers in the case of an emergency. We have already collected some data for our research from a test POD site that was constructed. We took data on the amount of time it took each volunteer to get an individual actor through the line depending on whether they learned via teacher or by my software. The data helped to prove how beneficial teaching via software could be, due to the fact there wasn’t any missing information, and there was a greater retention rate. Currently I just work at Lowes as a customer service administrator, mostly so I get to interact with customers every day to better understand how to communicate and give the information I would have on my software. The general are that my research has been taken so far is in emergency preparedness, and I would like to continue heading this direction until other opportunities arise

Impacts of team virtuality on performance : a qualitative study.

Recent studies on virtual teams reveal that team virtuality varies in a continuum and may take different levels. Different levels of virtuality have considerable impacts on team processes and management as they imply several characteristics concerning communication dynamics and interaction styles, which change when shifting from one level to another. The purpose of this paper is to assess how the variability of team virtuality influences team performance. A multidimensional approach to evaluate virtuality was elaborated to identify changing performance variables at each level. The performance variables retained with relevance to the context study are: output quality, team members` satisfaction, and team processes. A qualitative study was conducted on 6 virtual teams composed of 4 students involved in on-line master degrees at a French university. The results show that performance measures are differently influenced by virtuality level. Although output quality seems not to be related to team virtuality, effective team processes and members’ satisfaction are associated with low virtuality levels. Ineffective processes were found in high virtuality teams, however positive dynamics and tem spirit characterise low virtuality teams.Télétravail; Virtual team performance; Team processes; performance; Equipes virtuelles; E-management; Telework;