h/t Instapundit
[phys.org news] - A team of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, HSE University Moscow in Russia, Stanford University, and Cornell University used a multi-site, randomized controlled study at three Russian universities to compare performance and satisfaction for students in two engineering courses. The students were randomly divided into the three cohorts and received identical lessons and assignments via one of three delivery modalities: 1) in-person lectures and discussion sections 2) a blend of online and in-person instruction, and 3) fully online instruction. The online and blended instruction utilized OpenEdu, a platform developed by a non-profit organization in Russia to make online university courses available to the public.
At the conclusion of the courses, researchers measured final exam scores, performance on course assignments, and student satisfaction. Students in all three modalities had similar scores on final exams. Students in fully online modality scored higher on course assignments but reported slightly lower satisfaction than students in the in-person modality. Furthermore, the online and blended modes of instruction cost significantly less per-student than traditional, in- person instruction. Blended instruction lowered the cost of per-student instruction by 15-19% depending on the course; online instruction lowered the cost of per-student instruction by 79- 81% depending on the course. |