Effectiveness of Online learning PDF

AN EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE EDUCATION AND AN EXTENT TO WHICH IT REPLACES TRADITIONAL EDUCATION. Phunziro Masanjala-Mphwina Date: 02/September/2021 1 AN EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE LEARNING AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH IT REPLACES TRADITIONAL LEARNING. In a modern age where technology has and continues to take toll in almost all areas of operation, one can rightly assert that education as one of the key areas has not been spared. This is to say that education and technology are two inseparable entities as the marriage of the two evidences a new direction the global community has taken as a way of advancing service delivery in different areas including in education. This assertion agrees with Chronical Research Services (2020) who suggest that “the growth of online learning is also in response to the new college student who is older, more technologically savvy, and in need of an accessible, low-cost educational option”. This on the other hand can be assessed with the intent to understand how effective it is to the daily teaching and learning given the demands of the modern age student, therefore; this essay evaluates the effectiveness of online learning as a technological development in education as well as how well it replaces traditional learning as a pre-existing teaching and learning approach. Online-learning is a term used interchangeably with E-learning which is a term Guri-Rosenbilt (2005) defines as electronic media used for various learning purposes ranging from conventional classroom to online substitution for face-to-face meetings with online encounters. This is in other words to describe online learning as a learning in which there is no direct physical interaction between the instructor and the student as they are engaged in the teaching and learning exercise in totally removed placements. Using Guri-Rosenbilt’s definition, it is evident that online learning to a greater extent replaces traditional or conventional learning, however its effectiveness can be contrasted with the former in order to understand how well elearning has replaced traditional learning. Considering that the world is operating at a communal level, where people are separated by time and distance, but with a greater interest to exchange knowledge and experiences, Elearning clearly seems to be the most effective path in which to steer education in order to meet the growing knowledge exchange demand. This is to say that, online learning is time and space convenient for global knowledge exchange as opposed to traditional or face-to-face learning. For example, a student in Europe can attain educational experience from an African education system through an online student exchange program. 2 The “online” nature of the program alone, saves the European student travel time to fly to Africa in order to physically experience the target system’s nature. Therefore rendering online learning time effective, considering time and distance barriers, a point Goodridge (2001) attests to by pointing out that E-learning provides faster learning at reduced costs, increased access to learning, and clear accountability for all participants in the learning process, Russel (2001) on the other hand further alludes in agreement with Goodridge by saying that “the point is that no matter who or what is being taught, more than one medium will produce adequate learning results and we must choose the less expensive media or waste limited education resources”. Secondly, considering that the teaching and learning exchange is supposed to be interesting to both the teacher and student, it can be argued that online learning provides a wide variety of learning opportunities and takes advantage of unlimited platforms as a way of making learning an enjoyable process. This is as opposed to traditional teaching where the presence of the teacher is what carries more weight and the way he or she organizes the learning session matters is limited. This is to say that, as the usage of technology in the modern age is sorely dependent on one’s capacity to maneuver in the technological arena, therefore it is of great significance that technology becomes one’s daily life experience even in learning. This is a privilege that is available for students to utilize through online learning, as opposed to traditional teaching. Papanis (ND) notes that, overall e-learning, provides information from a greater variety of sources, increased access to knowledge for lifelong learners, improved quality of services, and rapid adoption of new information and new programs. In this case, it can be rightly said that online learning appeals to different faculties of one’s development as far as human development is concerned, as it allows the student to interact with a wide range of information as compared to the traditional teaching approach. The extent to with e-learning replaces traditional teaching can also be measured according to the growth in preference of internet-based learning approach compared to the enrollment rates of students for face-to-face learning opportunities. Seaman (2010) in her research notes that “Online enrollments continue to grow at rates faster than overall higher education. Enrollments in online courses increased by 21 percent between 2009 and 2010, compared with an increase of two percent for campus enrollments. 3 More than 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2009, an increase of nearly one million students over the previous year”, Bates (2011) adds that “major developments in 2010 included the expansion of enrollments in online courses by 21 percent compared with a 2 percent expansion of campus-based enrollments. Additionally, it is noted that while much of the expansion is occurring in the aggressive, for-profit sector of education, enrollment for online courses continues to exceed that of campus-based courses in state universities as well”. Paying close attention to Seaman and Bates’ study statistics, it can be argued that there should be a great rise in the online learning enrollments even in the recent year (2019-2021) considering other factors which have been at play including global pandemics such as the COVID-19 among others. In this case therefore; one can say that, internet enabled learning greatly replaces conventional learning approaches, as response to social and economic demands of the global community. Even though there is rapid growth in the number of enrollments for online learning and give the undeniably notable and high levels of online courses than conventional learning sessions which can presumably be said to be a replacement for the later, the general purpose of education is not just to be easily accessible or finance-friendly. However it is the product from the education process that matters the most. This therefore questions the performance of students in the online courses compared to performance of those going through face-to-face learning. Xu and Jaggars (2011) found that students fared significantly worse in online courses in terms of both course persistence and end-of-course grades. Since assessment is meant to measure how much a learner had learned from a teaching and learning exchange, in the case of Xu and Jaggars despite the growing number of enrollment, student’s learning levels display more to be desired in terms of what education intends to achieve by the end of the day. Despite the arguments that online learning is more flexible and friendly, it is evident that the independence in online learning invalidates the outcomes of product from the system in premise, this is so as there is no scaffolding or modelling in online learning platforms; Jiang, Parent and Eastmond (2006) in their research found that “Students valued interaction with instructor as an important factor in online learning. New students had a better success rate in instructor-led online courses than in independent-study online courses.” This is to indicate that the physical presence of an instructor in the traditional learning approach is of great importance as helps sustain the general objective of teaching and learning which is, culturing a change in behavior in respect to newly attained knowledge. This is a quality which is diluted in high volumes in the “flexible” online learning. 4 In general, the fast growing numbers in online learning opportunities and enrollments, are evidence of how well the internet based learning approach is replacing the conventional teaching approach. On the other hand, its effectiveness is questionable as there is an apparent record of poor academic performance of learners in the knowledge exchange course which generally renders the approach as ineffective if compared to what education intends to achieve and is reflected through academic performance reports. 5 REFERENCES Allen, E., & Seaman, J. (2010). Class Difference$: Online Education in the United States. Retrieved from http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/class_differences. Bates, T. (2011). 2@11 Outlook for Online Learning and Distance Education. Contact North. Goodridge, E. (2001), “Online Training Lets Companies Provide More Employee Instructions For Less Money”. Learning Circuits. ASTD Publishing: Alexandria, V.A. Jiang .M., Parent, S. and Eastmond, D. (2006) 'Effectiveness Of Web-Based Learning Opportunities In A Competency-Based Program', International Journal on E-Learning, vol. 5, no. 3 Russell, T.L. (2001). The No Significant Difference Phenomenon: A Comparative Research Annotated Bibliography on Technology for Distance Education (IDECC, fifth edition). Retrieved from http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/search.asp Papanis, E. (ND), Traditional Teaching Versus E-Learning, Mytilene: University of Aegean Xu, D. & Jaggars, S. (2013). Examining the Effectiveness of Online Learning Within a Community College System: An Instrumental Variable Approach, New York: Columbia University 6