Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
eLearning
Is Blended Learning Effective?
9/17/2008
|
|
Blended learning sounds like a nice idea--mixing a traditional classroom environment with online components--but is it actually effective? It seems almost intuitively obvious that it is. And with the explosion of blended course delivery in recent years, despite the dearth of research, clearly education institutions take that point for granted.
But researchers at the University of Missouri didn't want to take it for granted when it came to deciding on a delivery model for her own class. So Shawna Strickland, director of the Respiratory Therapy Program at the University of Missouri School of Health Professions, along with student Jason Domachowski, launched a study into the effectiveness of blended learning versus a traditional classroom, dubbed "The Effectiveness of Blended Learning Environments for the Delivery of Respiratory Care Education."
"I couldn't find any research on the subject of blended learning when I was trying to decide for my own class whether blended learning was effective," Strickland said through the University of Missouri News Bureau. "In theory, it sounds great, but there was really no hard evidence that it works. In addition, it is important to ask the question: 'do the students even like it?'"
The study compared two classes taught by the same teacher using two different delivery models: one purely traditional (i.e. face to face), the other blended.
The result, according to the study, was a wash. Academically, there was no statistical difference in achievement between the two classes. And there were no major differences in satisfaction levels based on subjective student comments.
According to an abstract of the report, "None of the variables showed a statistically significant difference (p=0.05). Further testing revealed an expected positive relationship between pre-existing GPA and the final examination grade as well as the final examination grade and the course grade (p=0.05). No other positive relationships were noted in course outcomes, student satisfaction or subjective comments."
Recommended Reading
- Georgia Tech Helps Develop Web-based Tool To Improve Blood Supply
The Georgia Tech College of Computing, working in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has developed a Web-based tool for tracking blood safety. The program is expected to help developing countries improve the adequacy and safety of their national blood supplies through better monitoring and evaluation.
- Mississippi State Implements Reflex Virtual Management Center
Mississippi State University has implemented Reflex VMC (Virtual Management Center) from Reflex Systems. The application allows IT administrators to monitor a virtual infrastructure and enforce business and IT policies.
- Stanford Law School Launches IP Litigation Clearinghouse
The Law, Science & Technology Program at Stanford Law School has launched the Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse (IPLC), an online database that offers comprehensive information about intellectual property (IP) disputes within the United States.
- Texas A&M Health Science Center Adopts Banner Administrative Management
The Texas A&M Health Science Center has selected the Banner Unified Digital Campus (UDC) from Sungard Higher Education to help unify its geographically-dispersed community and to enhance and expand services and communications to its growing student enrollment.
- NCCC: Data Cleansing Key To Managing Growth
Community colleges are in a good spot in some ways during the economic downturn, as tight family budgets drive up the appeal of the community college option. But along with the rest of higher education, most community colleges also face shrinking IT budgets and tighter resources. That makes it that much harder to handle the growing enrollment numbers that some community colleges are seeing.
- Finjan: Layoffs Could Drive IT People To Become Cyber-Criminals
Security vendor Finjan predicts that the current economic downturn could herald a sharp rise in cybercrime during 2009--driven by the rise in the number of IT people being laid off. According to a report from the company's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC), more unemployed IT personnel will be tempted to seek "new and easy income by purchasing and using crimeware toolkits that are sold by professional hackers."
