(This assignment was meant to make a contribution to the IDT community by posting a response to a blog posting. After writing this reply to "Efficacy of Web-Based Instruction", I found that no matter what I try, I get an error message from the page that says "We're sorry. We cannot accept this data." So here it is, and hopefully Mr. Krauss will see this.)
As someone who is new to both teaching in general as well as teaching in an online environment, I found this post and the original article very interesting on several fronts: the concept of the traditional classroom as a baseline measurement, the idea that technology alone does not guarantee a better learning experience (rather, the importance lies in how it is used), and finally, the idea that web-based courses should focus on providing things that might not be possible in the classroom.
First, the idea that the “traditional” classroom is the baseline measurement for all other types of education to be measured by: I think this is a product of our ingrained belief in the system of education that we currently have – regardless of whether or not it actually works. Even more interesting is the idea that this course was about critical reasoning skills…but are typical exams a good measure of critical thinking skills? In my own college experience, I found that most tests are focused on how well I was able to regurgitate the main points of the professor’s lectures. So, measuring performance against the gold standard of traditional instruction doesn’t seem to be the best option. Perhaps the students in the online class got a better understand of how to apply their newly-learned critical reasoning skills? This probably wouldn’t have been measured on the test, but it’s a good indicator of their success in the course.
Next, I really like what you said about technology being just another tool that is used to facilitate instruction. The chalkboard, the computer, and the internet are just a few in a long list of technological advances that have affected education. The article states that the in-class students performed better academically than the students taking a web-based version of the course. But this finding was based on their scores on traditional types of assessments. It’s important to remember, as you said, that the focus should be on how the technology is used, not just that it is used. A web-based class shouldn’t be just an online version of a lecture-based course, but should do things that aren’t possible in the classroom, like extensive discussion and collaboration between students. In my experience in online (k-12) education, I’ve also noticed this. The curriculum I use is very rich in multimedia content and enrichment activities and exercises – I’ve heard considerable feedback from students that this method of content delivery is very different from what they received in traditional classrooms, but that they are much more easily able to master the content in this way. If I were merely uploading lectures to the elearning site and then expecting them to take a traditional type of test, then I wouldn’t be taking advantage of the benefits of online education.
References:
Grayson, J., S. MacDonald, and J. Saindon (2001). The Efficacy of Web-Based
Instruction at York University: A Case Study of Modes of Reasoning, 1730. The Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies York University, Toronto. Retrieved from http://www.atkinson.yorku.ca/~pgrayson/pdfs/areport1.PDF
Krauss, F. (n.d.) Efficacy of Web-Based Instruction. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://ideas.blogs.com/lo/2004/04/efficacy_of_web.html
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