Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education issued a “meta-analysis” of online learning studies.  Being a bit of a Luddite despite spending years dealing with higher education technology issues, I always suspected that online learning was inferior to in-person learning.  Not so, says the Department of Education.  The Department concludes that students in online learning environments generally perform better than do students receiving face-to-face instruction, and students in classes that combine both online and face-to-face instruction do even better.  One thing I know for sure: It takes much more time to prepare for and teach online courses than it does to teach regular classes, which could explain some of the positive correlation.

Most surprising, though, is that despite identifying more than 1,000 studies of online learning, the U.S. Department of Education could not find enough quality studies to draw meaningful conclusions about online learning in the K-12 schools.  Given all the money spent on technology at the K-12 level, this is a stunning finding.  In West Virginia, the State alone will spend approximately $22.85 million for technology at the K-12 level during the next fiscal year, and this does not include additional local and federal funding.  West Virginia is not alone in spending significant amounts of money on technology and online learning.

The study does not address cost or the counter-intuitive fact that online learning often costs more than face-to-face learning.