In recent times, the SRI International for the Department of a course in miracles teachers revealed a 93-page report founded on one of the serious topics these days i.e. online education.
Surprising but true, the report shows that students enrolled in an online educational course exhibit an improved performance when it comes to their comparison with students attending the brick-and-mortar educational schemes.
The study bases its conclusions from the broad research on online education in opposition to the typical classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Though, a part of it was in K-12 premises, a considerably bigger part of the research was done at the level of colleges and continuing-education programs for adults in a variety of field, ranging from medical science to military education.
The outcome was analyzed on the basis of the 99 studies involving points, indicating which type of education (online or class room) is more beneficial for student’s overall performance in the diverse educational fields. It then became evident from the conclusions of those studies that on the whole, students pursuing some or a number of courses online would more likely rank in the 59th percentile in terms of experienced performance, while the average classroom student would score in the 50th percentile. Now, this theory indicates a significant amount of major difference in both the learning methods.
Barbara Means who’s the lead author of the study and a teaching psychologist says that the study is essentially aimed for the promotion of the fact that online study currently is far better than the conservative educational methods. Though, this doesn’t indicate that the time to “greet farewell” to classrooms has arrived. The chief aim of the study is to promote online education at a higher level for an improved and flexible educational method. Online education bases its success from the advancement in technology and the inclusion of highly developed online tools, which have together made online learning not only better but fun too.
Experts explain that online education plays an important role in the provision of individual attention to every learner that turns out to be highly problematic in a classroom loaded with a number of students. Consequently, a significantly big student majority takes this system as more engaging and winning than the traditional one.
According to Dean Philip R. Regier, online education is at its inflection point. Therefore, the maximum near-term growth will prove to be in continuing educational programs. In fact, a usual university accommodates 5,000 students in its continuing education programs, including in-person classes and online courses. If this educational strategy continues to maintain its recognition, the number of students is likely to triple within the upcoming three to five years.
It is also believed that online education can additionally play a role in the complete conversion of college campuses. Today, universities and several K-12 schools are incorporating online educational management systems, such as the Blackboard or the open-source Moodle. These are extensively used in the submissions of coursework, reading lists, and class timetable and even hosting some Web discussion boards.