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Research brief

Research on E-Learning Is Emerging by Denise Jarrett Weeks

"The hottest high-tech trend"... "The best hope for school reform"... "A daunting technological frontier of irreversible changes." These are the kinds of things you hear when you listen to the buzz about online education. That online schools and programs are blooming like fireweed across the education landscape seems to be everyone's perception, whether one views the innovation as benign or intrusive. Depending on whom you ask—education or tech-industry researchers—somewhere between 40,000 and 1 million K-12 students across the nation are enrolling in online courses these days.

Learning Point Associates of Illinois, a nonprofit education research agency, pointed to a government estimate that there were 40,000 to 50,000 online students in 37 states last school year. They identified 2,400 publicly funded online schools run by charter schools, states, and school districts. A much more robust estimate was made by the technology market research firm the PEAK Group, which projected that by this school year there would be 1.2 million students enrolled in online courses. In the group's report, Virtual Schools Across America: Trends in K-12 Online Education 2002, it notes that the lack of research on the effectiveness of online education hampers its development.

"The concept is still very new and relatively untested," the authors write. "To further complicate the issue, virtual schools employ a variety of teaching and learning methodologies and vary considerably from program to program making general analysis difficult." By and large, the success of individual online programs has been measured by test results, student retention, and course completion rates, and rarely by experimental research examining students' learning.

excavating evidence

Searching for scientific evidence of the effects of online learning on students' academic achievement, Learning Point researchers trawled library shelves and the World Wide Web for rigorous experimental studies. Out of thousands of reports, only 14 studies met their standard.

Working with researchers from two Florida universities, Learning Point Associates synthesized these few experimental studies on Web-based distance education programs. In October, they issued their report, The Effects of Distance Education on K-12 Student Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis. The studies they chose involved grades 3-12 and addressed reading, writing, math, science, social studies, physical education, and listening.

"The analysis shows that distance education can have the same effect on measures of student academic achievement when compared to traditional instruction," they conclude, saying that research indicates "no significant difference in performance between students who participated in online programs and those who were taught in face-to-face classrooms."

They found that online students were better problem solvers, decisionmakers, researchers, and critical and creative thinkers than their classroom-bound peers. Yet, online students were more likely to feel isolated and show less improvement in listening and speaking skills than their peers in conventional classrooms. Text-heavy online programs can present a particular challenge to students with language difficulties, and highly technical subjects, such as math and science, can be difficult to teach online.

But with only 14 studies to go on, the evidence is thin and must be interpreted with caution, the researchers write. "[C]urrent Web-based distance education systems have only been studied for about the last five years at the K-12 level, a very short time in which to build a body of literature."

They go on to say, "The importance of knowledge about effective virtual schooling cannot be overstated, because of the current boom in the numbers of virtual schools and students, and because of the essential role virtual schools can play in school reform movements and workforce development efforts."

The same month they made this claim, however, the Alliance for Childhood issued Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of Technology, a report contradicting the truism that children must become savvy users of technology in order to become successful adults.

Writing about educational technology in general, the authors say, "The supposed benefits of this techno-revolution for children are relentlessly promoted by high-tech corporations, even though independent research (conducted by those with no financial stake in the outcome) has produced little evidence of lasting, long-term gains."

The group is particularly critical of immersing young children in technology. "We remain convinced that, at the elementary school level and below, there is little evidence of lasting gains and much evidence of harm from the hours spent in front of screens," it says.

At present, the great majority of online education programs are for high school and middle school students. Few have been developed for very young children. The Alliance contends, however, "Research strongly indicates that face-to-face relationships with people and the rest of the natural world are critical not just for young children but for older students as well."

key to school reform

The federal government increasingly sees online learning as a tool for school reform. It has directed $1.8 billion to schools through its Enhancing Education Through Technology program, or E2T2. The program is in Title II of the No Child Left Behind Act, and officials encourage schools to use E2T2 funds for distance learning.

Last summer, the U.S. Department of Education hosted the Secretary's No Child Left Behind Leadership Summit—Increasing Options Through e-Learning. Governors, legislators, education leaders, and education technology experts were asked to explore virtual education as a "powerful technology innovation expanding opportunities for online learning anytime, anyplace in support of NCLB."

Online education can be key to helping schools meet some of the most challenging aspects of the NCLB legislation, said Susan Patrick, director of educational technology for the department, in her remarks at the summit. Supplemental services, professional development, and difficult-to-provide courses can be delivered to teachers and students through the Internet. Online programs from public and private providers foster school choice.

Some rural schools see online education as their best hope for preserving the personalized nature of their small schools. "[D]istance learning can enable small schools to remain open and small—thereby embracing more than a half century of education research showing that smaller schools offer a multitude of educational advantages for students over larger schools," writes the author of The Promise and the Power of Distance Learning in Rural Education, published last fall by the Rural School and Community Trust.

President George W. Bush has indicated that he will be turning the focus of his education agenda to high school reform, including making them more personalized. The U.S. Department of Education has launched Preparing America's Future: The High School Initiative to improve the quality of high school education for all students by emphasizing rigor, relevance, and relationships. Some see online learning as a good way to serve these aims. The authors of the Learning Point report say that technology, including e-learning, is increasingly seen as a force that can transform education because of the power of e-learning to individualize, personalize, and differentiate instruction.

The federal education department and national education groups have identified high school reform models that promote small school size, scheduling choice, charter schools, career academies, early college initiatives, and student engagement as strategies for boosting student achievement, say the Learning Point authors.

"Each of the reform models described and recommended by these groups is an example of a strength that has been shown by virtual schools," they say. "By offering scheduling flexibility, personalization, freedom from a large physical school, engaging tools of distance learning, opportunities to accelerate learning, and access to rigorous academic programs, virtual schools are not just important examples of school reform models, but virtual schools may represent the best hope for bringing high school reform quickly to large numbers of students."

a call for research

Four years ago, when the impulse to launch online schools was at a tipping point, the National Association of State Boards of Education claimed soberly, "[T]he uncomfortable reality is that education leaders are not currently driving the policy agenda. Rapidly moving trends are outpacing the ability of policymakers to keep up."

In the association's report, Any Time, Any Place, Any Path, Any Pace: Taking the Lead on e-Learning Policy, it said that the nation was "rushing pell-mell" into a new sphere of online education that was being driven by commercial interests as well as public. "By allowing this policy vacuum to continue, education leaders are failing to meet their obligation to assure that all students are provided a quality education."

Today, it's clear that the message has been heard. Legislators and policymakers in the states are writing new laws and regulations to guide the development of online education, and education agencies are issuing guidelines for online programs.

The summons, now, is for research.

And the U.S. Department of Education is putting money behind the call. Altogether, it has directed $56 million toward recent studies of educational technology at the K-12 level. In 2003, it awarded $15 million in E2T2 grants to nine states to conduct rigorous studies of how technology, including Internet-based distance education, affects student achievement in elementary and secondary education. The studies are intended to seed this area of education research with high-quality investigations that will beget yet more research. It's urgent to know what online education can offer 21st century schools, and what unintended consequences this new mode of public education might introduce.

"Virtual schools are calling into question longstanding ideas about the definition of a public school, the social goals of public education, and local control of public education," write the authors of Preserving Principles of Public Education in an Online World: What Policymakers Should Be Asking About Virtual Schools.

The paper was published in 2002 by the Center on Education Policy. "America's system of free, nondiscriminatory, religiously neutral public education has been the lifeblood of our democratic society. As a nation we have been careful to fiercely protect basic principles of public education, while remaining open to new ideas that could improve education for students."

Acutely aware of how fast new technologies can infiltrate people's lives, the authors write, "Like any innovation, [virtual schooling] should be implemented with careful deliberation and good planning.... Without these conversations, the landscape could change so quickly that essential principles could be compromised before people even realize it."