The online environment

A 2009 study of 10,720 faculty from 69 public universities found that instructors who had not taught online assumed that online education was not as good as face-to-face instruction. Interestingly, once they had taught online, they realized that learning outcomes in an online course were “as good as or better than face-to-face instruction” (p. 29). [4]

One of the most powerful and influential investigations into the effectiveness of online learning was conducted by the U.S. Department of Education and published in 2010. This was a systematic review of research literature that investigated differences in student learning outcomes between online and face-to-face learning from 1996-2008. It yielded these key findings:

• Students in online or blended (i.e., partly online, partly face-to-face) courses performed better, on average, than students in the same face-to-face courses.
• These effects were greater when the online courses involved collaboration and instructor involvement than when the online students were engaged in an independent study. [5]

In addition, chief academic officers have been asked to report their personal perceptions about the relative quality of online education in a series of surveys conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group. In 2015, 71.4% of those academic leaders rated learning outcomes in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face instruction, which is up from 57.2% in 2003. [1]

From the student perspective, a 2014 National Online Learners Priorities Report (conducted by Noel-Levitz) investigated the satisfaction and priorities of students in online courses. The report surveyed more than 122,000 students from 117 institutions, from fall 2011 through spring 2014. Nearly 80,000 were undergraduate students (66%) and more than 36,000 (30%) were graduate-level students. The remaining 4% listed their class level as “other.”

Key findings from this report: [6]

• 73% were satisfied with their online learning experience.
• 74% would re-enroll in their current online program.
• Overall, satisfaction and re-enrollment numbers have held steady over the past three years.
• “However, there are still approximately one-quarter of the students who were not satisfied or would not re-enroll in their current program if they had to do their online learning experience all over again” (p. 2).

Therefore, it is important to find out what contributes to student satisfaction and what areas need to be addressed.

The State University of New York has one of the largest ongoing studies of college-level student attitudes, with over 8,000 students surveyed over a five-year period. Variables that significantly correlated with high levels of satisfaction and perceived learning included: the quantity and quality of interactions with the instructor and classmates, prompt and constructive instructor feedback, and clear course expectations and assignment instructions. [7]

This is supported by the 2015-2016 Noel-Levitz study cited earlier. In that study, three items are consistently noted as challenges for online learners: quality of instruction, faculty responsiveness to student needs, and timely feedback from faculty. The study noted: “These items have been cited as national challenges for the last several years” (p. 7).

In addition, the Department of Education meta-analysis found that online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control over their interactions and prompting learner reflection. “The meta-analysis findings do not support simply putting an existing course online,” noted the Department of Education report authors, “but they do support redesigning instruction to incorporate additional learning opportunities online” (p. 51). [5]

These studies found that it is not the medium, but rather the efforts of the instructor, the time and thought invested in the pedagogy, and the intentional instructional design decisions that can make an online course more successful. Well-designed and well-taught online courses offer rich opportunities for interactive, collaborative, and reflective teaching and learning.

This table shows some of the key factors driving the increase in online education. Administrators, instructors, and students all have different perspectives and thus different reasons for pursuing online education.