When blended learning, gamification, makerspaces, and other technology-heavy buzzwords make their way through educational journals and forums, it can be hard to see whether these tools and techniques are something to invest in. Are many of the digital learning trends just fun ideas for those bored with tried-and-true techniques, or do they truly mark a fundamental shift in how students need to learn?
Here, we break down four studies that offer a deeper context to show how technology-assisted tools have previously helped—or hindered!—learning in other schools.
1. Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (2010)
This mega-study by the U.S. Department of Education analyzed published research of online learning from 1996 to 2008, and found that students in online learning environments generally outperformed students “taught entirely face-to-face.” Not only that, but blended learning environments—classes that combined online instruction with brick-and-mortar traditional teaching—outperformed strictly traditional classes and solely online courses.
Unfortunately, of the 50 papers processed for the meta-analysis, 43 of them concerned college students or adult learners, rather than K-12 students. So while the jury may be out on the effectiveness of such strategies for younger students—at least, based on this study—it’s reasonable to expect blended learning and online courses to become a part of their secondary education.
2. Does an Algebra Course with Tutoring Software Improve Student Learning? (2013)
Researchers compared the performance of middle and high school students (including some from private Catholic schools) who used a supplementary mathematics program (Cognitive Tutor Algebra I) to those who learned from a strictly traditional face-to-face approach.
While no significant difference was found in first year of the program, the experimental group of high schoolers—those who used the software in a blended learning approach—dramatically improved their math performance. The improvement was roughly equivalent to “mathematics achievement gains from 8th to 9th grade using traditional curricula.” A similar improvement was seen (but not deemed statistically significant) in the middle school subject group.
Basically, students who used the Cognitive Tutor Algebra I program demonstrated a grade level’s worth of improvement over those students who learned in traditional classrooms.
3. Evaluation of the MIND Research Institute’s Spatial-Temporal Math (ST Math) Program in California (2014)
Gamification—the theory that proposes turning education into “games” through points, awards, and entertaining formats to enhance student learning—is either embraced or demonized, depending on which educators you talk to. One study, however, believes that gamification works, if only given a specific context.
This study examined game-based math education within a blended learning environment in lower schools in California. Students in grades 2, 3, and 5 who took part in the fully integrated program had significantly higher test scores on required state tests than those students who did not take the gamified math program. (Students in fourth grade generally experienced improvement, but not to a statistically significant level, meaning that the higher results may have been coincidental and not directly attributed to gamification.)
4. Dropout: MOOC participants’ perspective (2014)
While this research is based on six anecdotal accounts of participation in a massive open online course (MOOC), it’s still a fascinating glimpse into why up to 90% of enrollees in an online course fail to ever complete the class. Researchers believe that a combination of factors play into the high dropout rate, including:
- a lack of financial incentive to complete the course;
- differing course objectives (i.e., completing the course for itself instead of as a prerequisite for a later course or certification); and
- unexpected turmoil in life, as many MOOC students are adults with increased responsibility to the traditional child/young adult learner.
This paper implies that students at the K-12 educational level may not fail out of online courses at the rate of their older peers, given the structure and discipline continue.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Division Heads Vol. 12 No. 6 20 Free Online Resources for School Administrators
The Source for Private School News Vol. 13 No. 10 School Spotlight: St. Margaret's Lives its Mission Through edX MOOCs
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 35 No. 3 The 21st Century School: Curriculum and Technology
I&P Vol. 39 No. 12 The Rhetoric of Rigor
