Distance Learning

Abstract

As the Internet becomes increasingly popular, so do online classes. Last year alone, there was a 13% increase in registration for distance learning classes throughout the public university system. (Beverly Creamer, 2003) It is now possible for people to learn conveniently from home or office. People that want to go to school can do so now because scheduling and geographic location does not matter with online classes because the class course is brought to the student rather than the student to the course.

Is distance learning as effective as classroom based courses? This study will compare questions asked to students that have taken both online and classroom-based courses to determine the effectiveness of online courses in relation to classroom-based courses. There will be two types of comparisons, those of the exact same course and those of similar courses.

Problem

The main problem is that no measuring system exists to compare online technical courses to classroom based technical courses at Central Connecticut State University.

Sub Problems

1. There is a difference in GPAs?

2. Which style course shows the higher grades?

3. Is there a meaningful correlation?

4. How can the difference be measured?

5. How do students feel about online and classroom-based courses?

6. Would they take an online course again?

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine if online technical courses are as effective as traditional classroom based courses offered at Central Connecticut State University. The outcome can be used as a basis to be applied to other schools or universities.

Strategy

Using a quantitative approach the answers to selected Class Survey questions will be compared for both online and classroom based courses.

Old Questions refers to questions already on the course evaluation questionnaire.

New Questions refers to questions that will be added to the course evaluation questionnaire for online classes.

5 Old Questions for Online Class Survey

1. Has this course been intellectually stimulating?

2. Would you rate the overall quality of this course as high?

3. What is your age? A. 19 or under B. 20-24 C. 25-29 D. 30 or over

4. Are you registered as a part time or full-time student?

5. What is your approximate GPA for the course?

5 New Questions for Online Class Survey

1. Is this your first online course?

2. Compared to a classroom-based course, was this course more or less difficult?

3. Compared to a classroom-based course, was the experience better or worse?

4. Compared to a classroom-based course, would you rate the quality of this course better or worse?

5. Would you take another online courses or recommend online courses to peers?

To maintain commonality between course curriculums and to have an accurate base line for comparing online verses classroom based course, a few details need special attention. First the same textbook should be used. This will ensure that the foundation for the course work will be the same. Similar students should also be used, if possible. This is so that engineering graduate students are compared to engineering graduate students instead of freshman art major students. Lastly one teacher should teach both the online and classroom based course. Keeping these three details common among courses means the only difference is the course delivery method. The course delivery method is what is to be studied.

Possible Results

There are a few possible outcomes. Students could either believe that online courses are better or worse than conventional classroom based courses.

Students may get more out of an online course, as it would be more straightforward. There would be less chance of digressing from the course topic since the session structure has already been prepared. Since there is no direct person to person communication, the direction of the course session can not change, as it is possible in an open discussion. The student can also pick when