An Apple for Teacher: Online versus Traditional Education

Jaclyn Lasuen University of Idaho

Abstract: The subject of some debate, this paper seeks to find the most effective means of education in modern society. Pulling information from past studies and providing new information on the topic, the results have found that most people prefer traditional education to online education when it comes to subject retention and instructor care. Intended to survey the public and gain insight into public feeling, this study asked local students about their experiences in online coursework. As a means of improvement, several justifications and suggestions are offered. Keywords: Online education; traditional education; quality of learning; efficiency in the classroom; lessons. Introduction Beginning as a means of connecting students with educational facilities over distances, online learning has evolved into a system of convenience for the everyman [1]. This is exemplary of a world in which time is money: travelling to and from campuses and sitting in scheduled classes has fallen down the ladder of vitality for many [1]. Whether online learning is an effective

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means of learning and retaining material is the subject of debate, however. Education is one of the most important aspects of a successful life, providing resourcefulness and improving quality of life [2]. As a prospective educator, I am interested in the best form of education for the futures leaders. Therefore, with the rising popularity of online learning, I believe it is necessary to call into question the value of e-learning. This subject is under some speculation by the academic community. After viewing many articles about the subject, I chose three that provided significant information to my research. The first, by Shweta Singh, David H. Rylander, and Tina C. Mims, was published in the International Journal of Business, Humanities, and Technology. I also pulled research from Rural Special Education Quarterly in the form of an article written by Cathy Galyon Keramidas. Lastly, I drew from the Journal of Multidisciplinary Research from an article by Donovan A. McFarlane. From these texts, I acquired information which really aided my own research methods. In Keramidas article, she provides the facts that online education is a popular means of education because of its benefits of cost effectiveness and flexibility. While these are meaningful and relevant points, I believe that the authors highlighted negatives of online courses outweigh them. Each teacher of an online classroom can expect two to three times the amount of preparatory work that a traditional teacher is faced with. Contrary to popular belief, teachers spend most of their time preparing for school. Even with this preparation increase, they receive similar pay as an online instructor, according to Keramidas. In addition to all of this, students value the level of interaction and care that they receive from their teachers in a live classroom and have concerns about the amount of attention that they would receive online. Students were also cited as expecting higher grades from an online class, curiously in light of the prior concerns, but received results similar to those of students in traditional classrooms. Overall, students received lower grades in online courses than their

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counterparts in traditional education settings, according to Keramidas. In another article (Singh et al.), the authors found that offline students averaged many more study hours per week than their online peers and rated their learning experience higher than their peers, as well. The authors also discovered that familiarity with the internet increased online course efficiency greatly, indicating that students without internet skills are more likely to do worse. In the final article by McFarlane, he states that traditional schools are indispensable to our environment because of the countless opportunities and advantages that they offer. Though these studies are all credible and provide insight and important information to the subject, I believe that I can do even more research on the subject as it pertains to the surrounding community. I believe that research will indicate that online learning is a less effective means of gaining knowledge than traditional classroom learning. Methods I composed a survey using surveymonkey.com to serve as a primary source of research for this topic (see Appendix A, figure 1). The survey was posted first on my public Facebook page and later within two private Facebook groups to generate more participants. The public page post included a simple plea for participants, Please take this survey for a class of mine!, and the private group posts were more personalized to the members, Please take this survey so that I can finish writing a really tedious paper! The private groups had a larger and quicker response than the public posting. The survey asked for demographic information (age and gender) and the following questions: What is your age? Choices being Under 18, 19-24, 25-29, 30-45, Over 45. What is your gender? Choices being Male or Female.

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What is your educational level? Choices being high school, college freshman, college sophomore, college junior, college senior, graduate student, or other with a specification field. What is your approximate cumulative grade point average? Choices being Below 2.5, 2.6-2.9, 3.0-3.4, or 3.5 or Above. Have you ever been enrolled in an online course? Choices being Yes or No. What grade did you receive in online courses (if applicable)? Choices being A, B, C, D, or F. Were you completely honest in your online coursework? Choices being Yes or No. Did you finish coursework on time without outside aid? Choices being Yes or No with a specification field. Do you feel that you could explain lessons learned in the online course without outside aid? Choices being Yes or No. Which do you feel is the most effective means of education in terms of learning and retaining information? Choices being Online Education or Traditional (In Class) Education. This survey was the most difficult aspect in the research because it required reliance on outside parties to participate. In the end, 14 responses were worthy of use within the study (out of 19, completed). For the main inclusion criteria, participants were represented if their feedback was cohesive enough to illicit belief that the survey had been completed to the best of their ability, honestly. Survey participants were excluded if they did not answer questions, or they appeared dishonest in their efforts. This form of survey was conducted to gain the most genuine results from participants in primarily the undergraduate level of university, but was not composed to exclude participants from high school or graduate school, if they so applied. If there were to be a

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replication study done with the same general ideas in mind, a longer, more intensive survey including a section for a more thorough description of online coursework experience from participants would be formulated. Results The research has found that of the fourteen participants, 92.9% were of the ages 18-24 and 7.1% were between 25 and 30 (figure 1). Mirroring these numbers, 92.9% of participants were female with the remaining 7.1% being male (figure 2). The education levels of these participants were 7.1% college freshmen, 57.1% college sophomores, 28.6% college juniors, and 7.1% graduate students (figure 3). The cumulative grade point averages of these students were 21.4% between a 2.5 and 2.9, 50% between a 3.0 and 3.4, with the remaining 28.6% having above a 3.5 (figure 4). Of those surveyed, 92.3% had taken an online class and 7.7% had not with one participant choosing not to answer the question (figure 5). 69.2% of participants received an A in the online course, leaving the remaining 30.8% with a B and one participant who did not answer the question (figure 6). 61.5% of participants claimed that they had been entirely honest in the course and 38.5% participants said that they had not been with one participant leaving the prompt blank (figure 7). Excluding one participant, 76.9% of participants stated that they had used no outside help with the course, with 23.1% saying that they had used outside help (figure 8). There was also a comment section to this question in which participants were asked to provide insight to the outside help they may have used; this elicited two responses which both claimed to use the internet for assistance instead of course materials to cheat. Only 38.5% of responses stated that they could restate the main ideas of the coursework, with 61.5% of participants stating that they could not remember what they learned in the course and one participant choosing not to participate (figure 9). A unanimous 100% of participants stated that

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they prefer traditional in-class instruction to online education (figure 10). For all results, please refer to Appendix B. Analysis The fact that 92.9% of participants were between the ages of 18 and 24 suggests that being online is more common for people of that age group because the study was offered online. The education levels of the participants indicates that online classes are more likely to be taken in higher course levels as opposed to entry level classes, but are less common in the graduate school group. The cumulative grade point average of the students as well as the end grades received in the online course indicate that online courses seem to be taken by students considered above average intelligence according to the grading model with 21.4% of participants having a 2.5-2.9 GPA, 50% having a 3.0-3.4, 28.6% receiving above a 3.5, 30.8% receiving a B as a final, and the remaining 69.2% earning an A in the course. An overwhelming 92.3% of participants had taken an online course, leaving only 7.7% not having taken an online course with one participant not answering. It is important to mention that there were five questions skipped on the survey. This is especially interesting when the 7.7% (or one person) who had not taken an online course is revealed to be the same 7.1% who were included in the 25-29 age group. This proves that online classes are becoming more popular as time goes on. Four of them were skipped by the same person who fell into the 25-29 age group and had not ever taken an online course. These questions all focused on the quality of online courses, so it is expected that the participant in question would not respond. The remaining prompt skipped (asking whether or not the participant had taken an online course) has been counted as a user error because the rest of the results for this participant were answered satisfactorily. I find the next set of statistics to be conflicting, in a way. 61.5% of participants stated that they had been completely honest in

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their online course work, yet 76.9% claimed that they had not used outside aid. This leads me to believe that the survey may not have been answered completely accurately. Having no proof of this, however, I chose to utilize the information. Also important in these sections were the comments which elicited two responses, both of which cited using internet sources for outside aid. 61.5% of participants stated that they could not recall most information that they had learned in the course with one participant declining answer. This proves that students are less likely to learn and retain information in an online course. Alternatively, it would have been wise to add a question about lessons retained in traditional classrooms. The astounding and most vital information to this study is the unanimous 100% of participants (without any declinations of answering) who reported that they prefer traditional in-class instruction to online classes. This is indicative of the fact that students feel better about their all-around learning experience if it is conducted in the traditional manner. Considering the results of Keramidas, MacFarlane, and Singh, Rylander, and Mims studies along with the results above, it may be said that online education is the more convenient source of education, and not the most worthwhile. In saying this, it is important to point out that for some people, online education is a viable means of education due to distance or conflicting commitments. But, for the overwhelming remainder of students today, traditional in-class education is the most effective means of learning the material presented in a classroom. Discussion In conclusion, the study found that the overwhelming majority of collegiate students believe that online learning is inferior to traditional in-class education. Participants stated that they did not complete the work assigned in online courses as they would in a brick and mortar classroom.

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Students are taking online courses and passing them, but with the added variables of outside aid, less interested teachers, and less retained content. Since this information is emerging, I think that a performance review of online courses is necessary to continue their use. As propositions of bettering the online education system, I offer the following ideas: If an instructor is incapable of teaching online, they should learn how to become better or be replaced. o This could be measured by students passing rates, instructor competence with online technologies, and time management procedures. Students should be somehow subjected to total honesty in their online coursework so that they are forced to study with the same input that they would offline. o If students had to be completely honest, they would be able to take online classes more seriously. Instructors could be required to have open consulting hours. o Similar to office hours at traditional universities, these would be available for Skype or other online video calling services to ensure the students understanding. This information is important to anyone concerned with the education of the future. Specifically, this concerns students who may have to choose between online or traditional classes, parents of students in the same situation, or prospective teachers and administrators. This study may have been better done with more time, trial and error tests, and more thorough studies done by someone interested in research. Though online schooling may seem like a good way to get some credits out of the way, it is important to think about whether or not the class

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youre trying to pass is relevant to the line of work youre going into. If so, perhaps a more engaging traditional classroom setting is the way to go. References Keramidas C.G. (2012). Are undergraduate students ready for online learning? A comparison of online and face-to-face sections of a course. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 31(4), 25-32. MacFarlane, D. A. (2011). Are there differences in the organizational structure and pedagogical approach of virtual and brick-and-mortar schools. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (1947-2900), 3(2), 83-98. Singh, S., Rylander, D. H., & Mims, T. C. (2012). Efficiency of online vs. offline learning: A comparison of inputs and outcomes. International Journal of Business, Humanities, and Technology, 2(1), 93-98. [1] Students shift from traditional campuses to online learning courses. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.learnkey.com/elearning/newsletter/q4_2010/article3.php [2] Why education is important: it will improve your quality of life. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.professorshouse.com/Family/Education/Articles/Why-Education-isImportant/

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Appendix A

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Figure 1a Appendix B Charts have been altered to include only fields that included data.

Age
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 18-24 25-29 Age

Figure 1b

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Sex
14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Female Male Sex

Figure 2b

Education Level
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 College Freshman College Sophomore College Junior Grad Student Education Level

Figure 3b

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Cumulative GPA
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 2.5-2.9 3.0-3.4 3.5 & Above Cumulative GPA

Figure 4b

Online Class Involvement

14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Yes No Online Class Involvement

Figure 5b

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Final Grade
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 A B Final Grade

Figure 6b

Honest in Course?
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Yes No Honest in Course?

Figure 7b

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Use of Outside Aid

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Yes No

Use of Outside Aid

Figure 8b

Retain Lessons
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Yes No Retain Lessons

Figure 9b

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Most Effective Means of Education

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Traditional Most Effective Means of Education

Figure 10b