How-to-Study Blog

A recent report commissioned by the Education Department examined research on online vs. traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. There was a small but statistically significant difference in favor of students doing some or all of their course work online. While most of the comparative studies were in college and adult learning settings, some were in K12 settings.

This is certainly an interesting finding. We live in a time when technology is replacing people in many occupational areas. We’ve heard for many years that teachers will some day be replaced by computers. Can this be the beginning? We doubt it.

One consistent finding across all learning research is that one-to-one tutoring is the most effective teaching technique. In a New York Times column (9/12/09), Steve Lohr points out that this model is obviously not a practical one. Lohr notes that online learning is a technological variation of one-to-one tutoring. He cites Christopher Dede, a professor of education at Harvard, who posits an interesting baseball metaphor. According to Dede, a good human tutor can deliver a “home run.” Online teaching may not deliver a home run, but it certainly can deliver “good solid singles.”