September 15, 2009

Will online classes replace traditional learning?

Sep. 15, 2009 at 03:52 PM | By Kate Malone | Comment Count

As the availability of online courses starts to increase, so do the questions about its effectiveness and its future. One examination of this topic has gotten a lot of press lately and triggered some heated arguments.

Zephyr Teachout’s Washington Post article, A Virtual Revolution is Brewing for Colleges predicts that the traditional university is headed for the same fate as newspapers. She argues that just as craigslist and news aggregators have displaced traditional newspaper revenue sources, online courses will render bricks and mortar schools obsolete.

Obviously the popularity of online learning has been increasing as we remain in a recession, colleges grow more expensive and online learning tools become more sophisticated. One of the impediments that I always saw for online learning is perceptions about its legitimacy as an effective way of learning. Part of this comes from visions of “diploma mills” who churn out degrees to anyone who can spell their name and address. But in the past few years this form of learning has begun to earn more respect. According to a study sponsored by the Department of Education, students who took some of all of their coursework online ranked in the 59th percentile in standardized tests, while traditional classroom learners ranked in the 50th.

I haven’t read all 93 pages of study- obviously there could be many reasons for this gap, but at the very least it seems like online courses can produce similar testing outcomes to traditional classroom settings. The study mostly looks at continuing education and career training courses- and I agree it does make sense to have these types of courses online. Adults taking one or two classes will probably do better when they don’t have to worry about fitting a set class time into their schedule. But I hardly think this marks the beginning of the demise of colleges.

While it makes sense for adults who have established connections and social skills to work from home in the midst of busy lives, it doesn’t make sense to isolate children (some K-12 districts have begun online learning initiatives) and young adults in computer rooms to only interact through video and chat. The school is more than just the sum of its parts. Interacting with our peers helps to socialize us and allows us to meet people who might not otherwise enter our social sphere. Not to mention that many schools also function as research institutions.

Being one of a few hundred of students watching a lecture online cannot not offer the same opportunities as a 20 person face-to-face classroom setting. Most of the older people I know still stay in contact with their college friends. Will the same thing occur if we have college experiences in a room by ourselves? So while there is definitely a place for online learning and its merits should not be played down, I think that “going to class” is much different from “going to college.”