On-line Instruction: Are the Outcomes the Same?

COMPUTER assisted instruction; INTERNET in education; DISTANCE education; COMPUTERS in education; EDUCATIONAL technology; PROGRAMMED instruction; COMPUTER managed instruction

This article presents a study which addressed the quality of online instruction received by students. Participants of the study were a total of 52 students who were evenly divided into two sections of the same graduate course that dealt with the topics of teacher leadership and communication. Students were randomly assigned to each of the two sections. Students were assigned various course requirements that included: designing and publishing a personal professional mission statement that included clearly defined goals, conducting interviews producing a power point presentation, writing a research paper, article critiques, midterm and final examinations. They were pre-assessed at the beginning of the course in a self evaluation that examined their level of expertise in the course's competencies and objectives. This evaluation was conducted on a likert scale. The data generated from this study indicated that there was no significant differences between the face-to-face section and the online section. The outside evaluators overall assessment of the face-to-face portfolios was an average of 6.00 and for the online section the overall assessment was an average of 6.25. The self-assessment data for the pre-assessment was an overall 2.9 for the face-to-face section and 3.0 for the online section. Results of the course evaluations administered by the university reveal no significant differences in students' satisfaction between the two sections. The score for the instructors overall effectiveness for the face-to-face section was 6.7 and for the online section the score was 6.8. The other areas of students' satisfaction addressed by the instrument revealed very similar results with none being at the significant level.