Online learning
Do students learn and like online work as much as class?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Students scored about the same whether a topic was done online or in class, but most preferred discussing in person while being happy to do solo written work online.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Human experiment — Study 1: counterbalanced within-subject comparison of two matched topics, one taught in class and one online, with a short test after each; Study 2: preference ratings and reasons from a new cohort
- N
- N=67 · 67 third-year psychology students in Study 1 (Group 1 n = 27, Group 2 n = 40); 37 different students in Study 2
- Population
- Third-year undergraduate psychology students at an Australian university
- Outcome
- Short-answer test marks per modality; 1-5 preference ratings for in-class vs online; thematic analysis of reasons
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Key findings
Test marks did not differ by modality or topic, and a student's preferred modality was unrelated to their marks. In Study 1, 47 students preferred in-class work versus 20 who preferred online or didn't mind; the main reasons were more engagement and immediate feedback in class, and convenience online. In Study 2, preferences split by task: written activities averaged 3.54 on the 5-point scale (leaning online) while discussions averaged 1.62 (strongly in class).
Methodology
In Study 1, 67 psychology undergraduates studied two matched child-development topics: one through in-class exercises and discussion, the other through an online discussion board a week later, with the topic order swapped between two groups. After each, they sat a short test on that topic and rated whether they preferred class or online, and explained why. Study 2 asked 37 new students to rate separately whether they preferred written activities and discussions in class or online.
Limitations
Every student did the face-to-face session first and the online one second, so modality is tangled up with week order and practice effects. The online test could be taken at home, possibly with internet access, while the class test could not. Samples were modest, all were advanced psychology students at one university, and the online discussion was slow and asynchronous, so a real-time online format might produce different preferences. A null difference in marks on one short test does not prove the two modes are equivalent for deeper or longer-term learning.
How this study connects
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