DO STUDENTS LEARN AS MUCH
FROM A DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE
(STATISTICALLY SPEAKING)?
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, NM 88130
ABSTRACT
More and more colleges and universities offer distance-learning courses by using various technological methods. Distance-learning courses provide an extra opportunity for those students who may not have a chance to pursue their education by physically attending a college, either for the purpose of enhancing their knowledge, or for acquiring a college degree. So, it is worthwhile to explore alternating instructional modes to observe the effects of the practice on students’ learning. Therefore, this study makes assessment of three introductory statistics courses taught by the same instructor in three different settings. The settings were:
1. Completely distance-learning, mostly non-traditional students
2. Lecture class, one night a week over 10 weeks, mostly non-traditional students
3. Lecture class, three times a week over a semester, mostly traditional students.
The main question addressed in this study is “How does achievement of students in a distance-learning course compare to that of students using a traditional method?” The three settings are analyzed to observe the students’ learning of the course materials based on various assessment instruments. Furthermore, this study will investigate whether there are significant statistical differences between these methods by applying parametric and non-parametric statistics to measure students’ achievements.