Online Education vs. Classroom
Adrienne Uy
ENG 1050 – DC12M
Informative Synthesis
11-7-12
Online Education versus the Classroom An education paves the road to success. From high-school, college, or on-the-job training, the classroom has been the traditional setting for teaching and learning. But nowadays that is rapidly changing. With technology at an advantage, more online schooling and training is taking place of the traditional classroom. Both public and online schools have its fair shares of advantages and disadvantages, but recent research suggests that online educational benefits outweigh that of regular schools and classrooms. Students find that an online education provides less pressure, the ability to concentrate better, and avoiding negative social interactions. While all that might be true, what about the aspects they miss? Examples may be friends, positive social interactions, and building social skills? Is online education really as effective as land based education? In the article, “Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom” by Steve Lohr, he discusses studies that were conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education. The studies were done on kindergarten through 12th grade, in colleges and in continuing adult education, in both classrooms and online. From 1998 to 2008, 99 studies were conducted, that found that the online students testing scores ranked in the 59th percentile, while classroom students ranked in the 50th percentile. Their conclusion is that online education is more personalized to each individual student. (Lohr 1) In another article by Chris Ingalls, he reviews the same idea; that online public schools are the way to go. In Forks, Washington, the Quillayute Valley School District has had a major increase in online students. The town’s online high school is the Insight School of Washington. In the Insight School of Washington, there were just over 2,000 more online students than in the regular classrooms. Patrick
ENG 1050 – DC12M
Informative Synthesis
11-7-12
Online Education versus the Classroom An education paves the road to success. From high-school, college, or on-the-job training, the classroom has been the traditional setting for teaching and learning. But nowadays that is rapidly changing. With technology at an advantage, more online schooling and training is taking place of the traditional classroom. Both public and online schools have its fair shares of advantages and disadvantages, but recent research suggests that online educational benefits outweigh that of regular schools and classrooms. Students find that an online education provides less pressure, the ability to concentrate better, and avoiding negative social interactions. While all that might be true, what about the aspects they miss? Examples may be friends, positive social interactions, and building social skills? Is online education really as effective as land based education? In the article, “Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom” by Steve Lohr, he discusses studies that were conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education. The studies were done on kindergarten through 12th grade, in colleges and in continuing adult education, in both classrooms and online. From 1998 to 2008, 99 studies were conducted, that found that the online students testing scores ranked in the 59th percentile, while classroom students ranked in the 50th percentile. Their conclusion is that online education is more personalized to each individual student. (Lohr 1) In another article by Chris Ingalls, he reviews the same idea; that online public schools are the way to go. In Forks, Washington, the Quillayute Valley School District has had a major increase in online students. The town’s online high school is the Insight School of Washington. In the Insight School of Washington, there were just over 2,000 more online students than in the regular classrooms. Patrick
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