Online Education: The Elements for Better Learning

Some news (probably not enough) is being made of the recent U.S. Department of Education study, "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies." It's a meta-analysis of 99 studies in the research literature from 1996 to 2008, with an emphasis on 2004-2008 (46 studies from that time period were of sufficient scope to permit the calculation of effect sizes).

The report finds that online courses can have outcomes that are superior to those of classroom-based learning. However, the real news is in the final pages of the study, in Discussions and Implications (p. 51):

"Clark (1983) has cautioned against interpreting studies of instruction in different media as demonstrating an effect for a given medium inasmuch as conditions may vary with respect to a whole set of instructor and content variables. That caution applies well to the findings of this meta-analysis, which should not be construed as demonstrating that online learning is superior as a medium. Rather, it is the combination of elements in the treatment conditions, which are likely to include additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration, that has proven effective. The meta-analysis findings do not support simply putting an existing course online, but they do support redesigning instruction to incorporate additional learning opportunities online."

In other words, interventions that can increase time on task and engagement with learning materials and other students, are likely to improve student learning. This is not news, but an important confirmation. Online tools give us more options for achieving increased engagement, but online does not--and these authors say it emphatically--magically, or in itself, produce better teaching and learning.

Wary of Budget Knife, Teaching Centers Seek to Sharpen Their Role

• Wary of Budget Knife, Teaching Centers Seek to Sharpen Their Role

  I'd have called it, "Wary of Budget Knife, Teaching Centers More Vitally Necessary Than Ever." This Chronicle piece suggests repeatedly that teaching centers ought to be anxious, and quotes a few anxious folks. I couldn't agree more, though, with Connie Cook, who speaks to the contrary.
  
  Not everyone is so gloomy. Constance E. Cook, who directs Michigan's teaching center, says that despite the high-profile closures, she believes more centers have opened than have been shuttered during the last two years. (No hard numbers exist, but most people interviewed for this story shared Ms. Cook's instinct.) "In this era in which people care so much about student learning, faculty teaching centers are generally thriving," Ms. Cook says. But she says that some of the recent closures, especially at an institution as large as Missouri, have made her colleagues anxious. As budgets tighten, she says, teaching centers need to strengthen their ties with other university offices and make sure that administrators see that the various offices are working in harmony.

• tags: facultydevelopment, teaching, centers, economy

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Men Men Men Men

The day's news brings two items concerned with improving educational outcomes for boys and men.

In one, Grand Meadow (Albert Lea, MN) Superintendent, Joe Brown, announces that in his district, beginning this fall, four 7th- and 8th-grade classes (art, vocal music, industrial technology and physical education) will offer gender-segregated instruction. Brown cites Leonard Sax and others in support of this decision to give young men specific attention that may improve their education. Grand Meadow has a disproportionate number of boys with discipline problems, in special education, and underperforming academically. The Austin Daily Herald article reports that "Brown and his wife, Minnesota Rep. Robin Brown (DFL-Moscow Township), and possibly other staff are attending a National Association for Single Sex Public Education conference in Atlanta in October. Robin Brown, an art teacher in Albert Lea, sits on the Higher Education committee at the capitol and is also a proponent of the gender education." Brown was not specific as to the specific teaching approaches or learning experiences that might improve these students' outcomes.

In the other, the San Francisco Bay View publishes an article on the University of Pennsylvania's Grad Prep Academy, seeking 10 young Black males who will enroll as juniors in fall, 2009, as potential Ph.D. scholars. The 10 men selected will receive mentoring and specific preparation to prepare them to apply for graduate school. They will also be eligible for a full scholarship in the university's Graduate School of Education. The program is intended to address the disparity in doctoral awards by gender and race: only 2.1 percent of all Ph.D.s degrees awarded at American universities in 2008.

Both are interesting responses to particular gaps in K-12 and higher education outcomes.