College and University Blog
Online College Courses: An Effective Way to Learn
It seems like online college courses have taken the country by storm. Most brick-and-mortar colleges and universities require traditional-aged students to take a combination of classroom and online courses, and working professionals and adults with families are taking online courses right from their own homes.
They’re trendy at the moment, and a list of advantages of taking college classes online would be enormous, but just how effective are they? Can you really learn at the college level without ever setting foot inside a classroom?
Students Performed Well in Online-Only Classes
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies, revised by the U.S. Department of Education in September 2010, analyzed more than 1,000 other studies of online education conducted since 1996.
The analysis found that students in an online-only setting performed marginally better than students in a classroom-only setting, but results did not point to specific institutions or suggest that online programs are of a higher quality than traditional ones.
According to U.S. News and World Report, the Department of Education’s analysis found that blended learning, a combination of online and in-class instruction, appears to be the most effective teaching method.
Online Classes Good for Non-Traditional Students
“I have found the program, which is predominantly online, to be far more rewarding and fulfilling than I ever imagined,” Anthony Adornato, director of communications at Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute, says of his own graduate studies at the University of Missouri. “Having said that, I think there is a big difference between getting a master’s degree online versus an undergraduate degree online. I don’t think there is anything that could replace the ‘traditional’ college experience.”
But for nontraditional students looking to pursue any type of degree, taking classes online should not be a deterrent, the studies suggest. “Students are highly engaged when they work online because they get instant feedback,” Marc Loudon, a professor of medicinal chemistry at Purdue University, told U.S. News and World Report. "The degree of benefit surprised me
Melissa Rhone+
Melissa Rhone earned her Bachelor of Music in Education from the University of Tampa. She resides in the Tampa Bay area and enjoys writing about college, pop culture, and epilepsy awareness.