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GORDON ELDRIDGE: LESSONS IN LEARNING

Is Blended Learning More Effective?

By Gordon Eldridge
03-Jun-15


The use of the internet as a learning tool has grown exponentially over the past decade or so, but the research on the benefits of internet use shows mixed results.
There are a multitude of reasons for this. Sometimes the comparison of internet courses with face-to-face classes has involved the use of different curricula, and we have ended up comparing apples with oranges. Sometimes there has been little differentiation between different types of internet usage within classrooms.
Researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Barcelona sought to bring a little more clarity to the situation by investigating the impact of different types of internet usage. Their underlying assumption was that the internet can be used to support three broad types of learning:
1. Expository learning, where the internet is used for the transmission of content;
2. Active learning, where students use the internet to source and explore information themselves, often in the context of solving problems; and
3. Interactive learning, where the internet is used to communicate with others and the learning emerges from the interaction.
For the purposes of the study, they grouped the first two kinds of learning together to form a category called “individual learning,” and compared that with the third category, interactive learning. Particular uses of the internet were defined within each category as follows:
Individual Learning
1. Searching for information
2. Looking up teaching plans and bibliographical references
3. Looking up course materials
4. Working with bookmarks
5. Subscribing to mailing lists on the topic
Interactive learning
1. Communicating with teachers
2. Communicating with fellow students
3. Online discussion on the topic
4. Cooperative group work
Some 8,046 students from two universities participated in the study. The students were surveyed with regard to their internet use, and were classified as intensive users in the individual category if they were making use of four of the five uses defined under that category, and intensive users in the interactive category if they were making three of the four uses defined.
Achievement was then measured as a percentage of credits passed as against credits enrolled for the year. The researchers aimed to measure the difference in achievement of students in each treatment (individual and intensive), against the achievement they would have made had they not received it.
In order to do this, they used a statistical manipulation called Propensity Score Matching to create control groups. Statistical analyses were also performed to ensure that both treatment groups were homogenous in terms of academic ability, socio-economic variables, prior academic achievement, ability to use the internet, and time spent using the internet.
What were the results of the study?
• Using the internet for interactive purposes led to a statistically significant improvement in academic achievement.
• Using the internet for individual learning did not lead to any statistically significant effect.
What might this mean for our classrooms?
The basic result is that like any other resource, the potential benefits of the internet are dependent on how it is used. Incorporating internet use into learning only seems to improve learning if that use contains an interactive component. This extends research showing the benefits of collaborative learning into the digital environment.
It is a shame that the researchers did not break their data down further, to examine the relative benefits of the nine additional specific behaviors related to internet use, which made up their two treatment conditions. Hopefully future research will head in this direction.
Reference
Castaño-Muñoz, J., Duart, J. & Sancho-Vinuesa, T. (2014) “The internet in face-to-face higher education: Can interactive learning improve academic achievement?“ British Journal of Educational Technology, 45 1, pp. 149-159. Feb 2015




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