Does Online Education Really Beat the Classroom?

There has been a lot of buzz recently about a new research report that suggests online learning produces superior results than face-to-face teaching. A headline in the New York Times proclaimed "Online Education Beats the Classroom". But as Nicholas Carr points out in his blog posting, that conclusion is misleading and inaccurate. He highlights a number of critical limitations in the research and points out that the authors themselves state that the findings of the meta-analysis, "should not be construed as demonstrating that online learning is superior as a medium."

As Carr concludes: "Sometimes, the caveats in a study speak louder than the findings. I think that's the case here. A suggestion that classroom instruction supplemented by online exercises can lead to more learning than classroom instruction alone would hardly come as a surprise. But that's about the only firm conclusion I draw from this meta-analysis."