Online Learning in Higher Education
Higher education in the United States, especially the public sector, is increasingly short of resources. States continue to cut appropriations in response to fiscal constraints and pressures to spend more on other things, such as health care and retirement expenses. Higher tuition revenues might be an escape valve, but there is great concern about tuition levels increasing resentment among students and their families and the attendant political reverberations. President Obama has decried rising tuitions, called on colleges and universities to control costs, and proposed to withhold access to some federal programs for colleges and universities that do not address “affordability” issues.
Costs are no less a concern in K–12 education. Until the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent slowdown in U.S. economic growth, per-pupil expenditures on elementary and secondary education had been steadily rising. The number of school personnel hired for every 100 students more than doubled between 1960 and the first decade of the 21st century. But in the past few years, local property values have stagnated and states have faced intensifying fiscal pressure. As a result, per-pupil expenditures have for the first time in decades shown a noticeable decline, and pupil-teacher ratios have begun to shift upward (see “Public Schools and Money,” features, Fall 2012). With the rising cost of teacher and administrator pensions, the squeeze on school districts is expected to continue.
A subject of intense discussion is whether advances in information technology will, under the right circumstances, permit increases in productivity and thereby reduce the cost of instruction. Greater, and smarter, use of technology in teaching is widely seen as a promising way of controlling costs while reducing achievement gaps and improving access. The exploding growth in online learning, especially in higher education, is often cited as evidence that, at last, technology may offer pathways to progress (see Figure 1).
However, there is concern that at least some kinds of online learning are of low quality and that online learning in general depersonalizes education. It is important to recognize that “online learning” comes in a dizzying variety of flavors, ranging from simply videotaping lectures and posting them online for anytime access, to uploading materials such as syllabi, homework assignments, and tests to the Internet, all the way to highly sophisticated interactive learning systems that use cognitive tutors and take advantage of multiple feedback loops. Online learning can be used to teach many kinds of subjects to different populations in diverse institutional settings.
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Despite the apparent potential of online learning to deliver high-quality instruction at reduced costs, there is very little rigorous evidence on learning outcomes for students receiving instruction online. Very few studies look at the use of online learning for large introductory courses at major public universities, for example, where the great majority of undergraduate students pursue either associate or baccalaureate degrees. Even fewer use random assignment to create a true experiment that isolates the effect of learning online from other factors.
Our study overcomes many of the limitations of prior studies by using the gold standard research design, a randomized trial, to measure the effect on learning outcomes of a prototypical, interactive online college statistics course. Specifically, we randomly assigned students at six public university campuses to take the course in a hybrid format, with computer-guided instruction accompanied by one hour of face-to-face instruction each week, or a traditional format, with three to four hours of face-to-face instruction each week. We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same: students in the hybrid format pay no “price” for this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final-exam scores, or performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy. Cost simulations, although speculative, indicate that adopting hybrid models of instruction in large introductory courses has the potential to reduce instructor compensation costs quite substantially.
Research Design
Our study assesses the educational outcomes generated by what we term interactive learning online (ILO), highly sophisticated, web-based courses in which computer-guided instruction can substitute for some (though usually not all) traditional, face-to-face instruction. Course systems of this type take advantage of data collected from large numbers of students in order to offer each student customized instruction, as well as to enable instructors to track students’ progress in detail so that they can provide more targeted and effective guidance.
We worked with seven instances of a prototype ILO statistics course at six public university campuses (including two separate courses in separate departments on one campus). The individual campuses include, from the State University of New York (SUNY): the University at Albany and SUNY Institute of Technology; from the University of Maryland: the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Towson University; and from the City University of New York (CUNY): Baruch College and City College.
We examine the learning effectiveness of a particular interactive statistics course developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), considered a prototype for ILO courses. Although the CMU course can be delivered in a fully online environment, in this study most of the instruction was delivered through interactive online materials, but the online instruction was supplemented by a one-hour-per-week face-to-face session in which students could ask questions or obtain targeted assistance.
The exact research protocol varied by campus in accordance with local policies, practices, and preferences, but the general procedure followed was 1) at or before the beginning of the semester, students registered for the introductory statistics course were asked to participate in our study and offered modest incentives for doing so; 2) students who consented to participate filled out a baseline survey; 3) study participants were randomly assigned to take the class in a traditional or hybrid format; 4) study participants were asked to take a standardized test of statistical literacy at the beginning of the semester; and 5) at the end of the semester, study participants were asked to take the standardized test of statistical literacy again, as well as to complete another questionnaire.
Of the 3,046 students enrolled in these statistics courses in the fall 2011 semester, 605 agreed to participate in the study and to be randomized into either a hybrid- or traditional-format section. An even larger sample size would have been desirable, but the logistical challenges of scheduling at least two sections (one hybrid section and one traditional section) at the same time, to enable students in the study to attend the statistics course regardless of their (randomized) format assignment, restricted our prospective participant pool to the limited number of “paired” time slots available. Also, student consent was required in order for researchers to randomly assign them to the traditional or hybrid format. Not surprisingly, some students who were able to make the paired time slots elected not to participate in the study. All of these complications notwithstanding, our final sample of 605 students is in fact quite large in the context of this type of research.
The baseline survey administered to students included questions on students’ background characteristics, such as socioeconomic status, as well as their prior exposure to statistics and the reason for their interest in possibly taking the statistics course in a hybrid format. The end-of-semester survey asked questions about their experiences in the statistics course. Students in study-affiliated sections of the statistics course took a final exam that included a set of items that was identical across all the participating sections at that campus. The scores of study participants on this common portion of the exam were provided to the research team, along with background administrative data and final course grades of all students (both participants and, for comparison purposes, nonparticipants) enrolled in the course.
The participants in our study are a diverse group. Half come from families with incomes less than $50,000 and half are first-generation college students. Less than half are white, and the group is about evenly divided between students with college GPAs above and below 3.0. Most students are of traditional college-going age (younger than 24), enrolled full-time, and in their sophomore or junior year.
The data indicate that the randomization worked properly in that traditional- and hybrid-format students in fact have very similar characteristics overall. The 605 students who chose to participate in the study also have broadly similar characteristics to the other students registered for introductory statistics. The differences that do exist are quite small. For example, participants are more likely to be enrolled full-time but only by a margin of 90 versus 86 percent. Their outcomes in the statistics course are also comparable, with participants earning similar grades and being only slightly less likely to complete and pass the course than nonparticipants.
An important limitation of our study is that while we were successful in randomizing students between treatment and control groups, we could not randomize instructors in either group and thus could not control for differences in teacher quality. Instructor surveys reveal that, on average, the instructors in traditional-format sections were much more experienced than their counterparts teaching hybrid-format sections (median years of teaching experience was 2
Online Learning in Higher EducationHigher education in the United States, especially the public sector, is increasingly short of resources. States continue to cut appropriations in response to fiscal constraints and pressures to spend more on other things, such as health care and retirement expenses. Higher tuition revenues might be an escape valve, but there is great concern about tuition levels increasing resentment among students and their families and the attendant political reverberations. President Obama has decried rising tuitions, called on colleges and universities to control costs, and proposed to withhold access to some federal programs for colleges and universities that do not address “affordability” issues.Costs are no less a concern in K–12 education. Until the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent slowdown in U.S. economic growth, per-pupil expenditures on elementary and secondary education had been steadily rising. The number of school personnel hired for every 100 students more than doubled between 1960 and the first decade of the 21st century. But in the past few years, local property values have stagnated and states have faced intensifying fiscal pressure. As a result, per-pupil expenditures have for the first time in decades shown a noticeable decline, and pupil-teacher ratios have begun to shift upward (see “Public Schools and Money,” features, Fall 2012). With the rising cost of teacher and administrator pensions, the squeeze on school districts is expected to continue.A subject of intense discussion is whether advances in information technology will, under the right circumstances, permit increases in productivity and thereby reduce the cost of instruction. Greater, and smarter, use of technology in teaching is widely seen as a promising way of controlling costs while reducing achievement gaps and improving access. The exploding growth in online learning, especially in higher education, is often cited as evidence that, at last, technology may offer pathways to progress (see Figure 1).However, there is concern that at least some kinds of online learning are of low quality and that online learning in general depersonalizes education. It is important to recognize that “online learning” comes in a dizzying variety of flavors, ranging from simply videotaping lectures and posting them online for anytime access, to uploading materials such as syllabi, homework assignments, and tests to the Internet, all the way to highly sophisticated interactive learning systems that use cognitive tutors and take advantage of multiple feedback loops. Online learning can be used to teach many kinds of subjects to different populations in diverse institutional settings.Click to enlargeDespite the apparent potential of online learning to deliver high-quality instruction at reduced costs, there is very little rigorous evidence on learning outcomes for students receiving instruction online. Very few studies look at the use of online learning for large introductory courses at major public universities, for example, where the great majority of undergraduate students pursue either associate or baccalaureate degrees. Even fewer use random assignment to create a true experiment that isolates the effect of learning online from other factors.Our study overcomes many of the limitations of prior studies by using the gold standard research design, a randomized trial, to measure the effect on learning outcomes of a prototypical, interactive online college statistics course. Specifically, we randomly assigned students at six public university campuses to take the course in a hybrid format, with computer-guided instruction accompanied by one hour of face-to-face instruction each week, or a traditional format, with three to four hours of face-to-face instruction each week. We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same: students in the hybrid format pay no “price” for this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final-exam scores, or performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy. Cost simulations, although speculative, indicate that adopting hybrid models of instruction in large introductory courses has the potential to reduce instructor compensation costs quite substantially.Research DesignOur study assesses the educational outcomes generated by what we term interactive learning online (ILO), highly sophisticated, web-based courses in which computer-guided instruction can substitute for some (though usually not all) traditional, face-to-face instruction. Course systems of this type take advantage of data collected from large numbers of students in order to offer each student customized instruction, as well as to enable instructors to track students’ progress in detail so that they can provide more targeted and effective guidance.We worked with seven instances of a prototype ILO statistics course at six public university campuses (including two separate courses in separate departments on one campus). The individual campuses include, from the State University of New York (SUNY): the University at Albany and SUNY Institute of Technology; from the University of Maryland: the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Towson University; and from the City University of New York (CUNY): Baruch College and City College.We examine the learning effectiveness of a particular interactive statistics course developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), considered a prototype for ILO courses. Although the CMU course can be delivered in a fully online environment, in this study most of the instruction was delivered through interactive online materials, but the online instruction was supplemented by a one-hour-per-week face-to-face session in which students could ask questions or obtain targeted assistance.The exact research protocol varied by campus in accordance with local policies, practices, and preferences, but the general procedure followed was 1) at or before the beginning of the semester, students registered for the introductory statistics course were asked to participate in our study and offered modest incentives for doing so; 2) students who consented to participate filled out a baseline survey; 3) study participants were randomly assigned to take the class in a traditional or hybrid format; 4) study participants were asked to take a standardized test of statistical literacy at the beginning of the semester; and 5) at the end of the semester, study participants were asked to take the standardized test of statistical literacy again, as well as to complete another questionnaire.Of the 3,046 students enrolled in these statistics courses in the fall 2011 semester, 605 agreed to participate in the study and to be randomized into either a hybrid- or traditional-format section. An even larger sample size would have been desirable, but the logistical challenges of scheduling at least two sections (one hybrid section and one traditional section) at the same time, to enable students in the study to attend the statistics course regardless of their (randomized) format assignment, restricted our prospective participant pool to the limited number of “paired” time slots available. Also, student consent was required in order for researchers to randomly assign them to the traditional or hybrid format. Not surprisingly, some students who were able to make the paired time slots elected not to participate in the study. All of these complications notwithstanding, our final sample of 605 students is in fact quite large in the context of this type of research.
The baseline survey administered to students included questions on students’ background characteristics, such as socioeconomic status, as well as their prior exposure to statistics and the reason for their interest in possibly taking the statistics course in a hybrid format. The end-of-semester survey asked questions about their experiences in the statistics course. Students in study-affiliated sections of the statistics course took a final exam that included a set of items that was identical across all the participating sections at that campus. The scores of study participants on this common portion of the exam were provided to the research team, along with background administrative data and final course grades of all students (both participants and, for comparison purposes, nonparticipants) enrolled in the course.
The participants in our study are a diverse group. Half come from families with incomes less than $50,000 and half are first-generation college students. Less than half are white, and the group is about evenly divided between students with college GPAs above and below 3.0. Most students are of traditional college-going age (younger than 24), enrolled full-time, and in their sophomore or junior year.
The data indicate that the randomization worked properly in that traditional- and hybrid-format students in fact have very similar characteristics overall. The 605 students who chose to participate in the study also have broadly similar characteristics to the other students registered for introductory statistics. The differences that do exist are quite small. For example, participants are more likely to be enrolled full-time but only by a margin of 90 versus 86 percent. Their outcomes in the statistics course are also comparable, with participants earning similar grades and being only slightly less likely to complete and pass the course than nonparticipants.
An important limitation of our study is that while we were successful in randomizing students between treatment and control groups, we could not randomize instructors in either group and thus could not control for differences in teacher quality. Instructor surveys reveal that, on average, the instructors in traditional-format sections were much more experienced than their counterparts teaching hybrid-format sections (median years of teaching experience was 2
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