How does distance education compare with classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature
Robert Bernard
Philip C. Abrami
Evgueni Borokhovski
Anne Wade
Lori Wozney
Peter A. Wallet
Mannon Fiset
Binru Huang
Abstract
A meta-analysis of the comparative distance education (DE) literature between 1985 and 2002 was conducted. In total, 232 studies containing 688 independent achievement, attitude, and retention outcomes were analyzed. Overall results indicated effect sizes of essentially zero on all three measures and wide variability. This suggests that many applications of DE outperform their classroom counterparts and that many perform more poorly. Dividing achievement outcomes into synchronous and asynchronous forms of DE produced a some what different impression. In general, mean achievement effect sizes for synchronous applications favored classroom instruction, while effect sizes for asynchronous applications favored DE. However, significant heterogeneity remained in each subset.
Keywords
Classroom instruction, Comparative studies, Distance education, Meta analysis, Research methodology
Annotation
Comprehensive meta-analysis of literature from 1985 through December 2002. 2,262 research abstracts and 862 full-text articles were looked at. Measured attitude and retention outcomes. Found that it is hard to find what works overall because of the variability in sample size and outcomes of the studies.
APA Citation
Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Lou, Y., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L., … & Huang, B. (2004). How does distance education compare with classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of educational research, 74(3), 379-439.
About the Study
| Links to Article | https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=how+does+distance+education+compare+with+classroom+instruction&btnG= http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00346543074003379 |
| Mode | Online |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| In Publication | Review of Educational Research |
| Type of Research | Quantitative |
| Research Design | Meta-analysis |
| Intervention/Areas of Study | Course design |
| Level of Analysis | Course-level |
| Specific Populations Examined | |
| Peer-Reviewed | Yes |
| Specific Institutional Characteristics of Interest | |
| Specific Course or Program Characteristics | |
| Outcome Variables of Interest | Retention |
| Student Sample Size | 500 + |
| Citing Articles | https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=15442526115085187542&as_sdt=5,50&sciodt=0,50&hl=en |
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