Learning Effectiveness In Online Vs. Traditional Courses

The way instruction is being delivered to students is undergoing an unprecedented transformation as a result of various social, economic and technological factors. In particular, online and other forms of long distance education are becoming ubiquitous. An important question that arises for instructors is how well the students learn the course material when using these non-traditional modes of instruction. This paper describes an attempt to gage the learning effectiveness of an online course when compared to a traditional course. The paper describes an online course developed by the author, which was also taught simultaneously as a traditional course in a parallel section. The student performance and course evaluations in parallel sections of the course were tracked over several semesters. The findings indicate that learning effectiveness in an online course can be just as good as in a traditional course.