Online Education and Academic Rigor: A Research Note.

Online and offline courses are compared in terms of rigor. It would appear from this study that online or distance learning is harder than offline or traditional classroom learning. Caveats are explored.

In a recent article by Ridley and Husband(1998) the authors tested the hypothesis of grade inflation and related issues when comparing online and offline courses. For the neophyte, online education means distance learning of numerous modalities and offline is defined as traditional face-to-face classes. The results of their study suggested that differences were noted in terms of academic rigor. Further, it appeared that online courses were more rigorous.

The authors of this article compared online/offline of the same course. For two academic years, the same course had the same instructor, textbook, time period (1994-1996) and related. The difference is that the offline had lectures and the online had videos. The total N was 473 students. The dependent variable was attaining a passing grade or attrition/failure. Thus, did the two different delivery systems have significant difference in terms of those who succeed or fail/withdraw?

A two by two table was constructed comparing online and offline students with "success "(earning a passing A-D grade) and "failure" (F or Withdrawl.) The chi-square value was 40.28. This is significant well beyond the .001 confidence level. In terms of the raw data, online students were roughly the same with more failures than successes. However, in the offline group, students were over represented in the success group. Or there were less withdrawals and failures among the traditional offline group.

The findings would suggest that a significant difference was noted between online and offline education, and that online appears to be more rigorous.

However, there may be other explanations. One is that online courses may involve students who register late and may find online courses are the only courses available, thus the student may be less motivated. Another is that temporarily, students entering online courses may believe that they are easier because they do not have to attend class. Once they begin to procrastinate, they fall behind and never catch up. Thus, they fail or withdraw. Less talented students may be attracted to online class, because they believe that working alone and privately, they can somehow cheat their way through the class. When they find that safeguards dwell within the course, they panic, withdraw or if it is too late, fail. Other explanations may be possible. The tentative conclusion is that online is more rigorous.

If these findings are replicated through further study and compliment this research and the one mentioned at the beginning of this article, it would appear that online courses are a valuable alternative for education in the 21st century. Further, these findings should sully the stereotype that online learning is "easier."

References

Ridley, Dennis R. and James E. Husband (1998) Online education: a study of academic rigor and integrity. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 25(3).

Both authors are involved with online education, have developed online curriculum, and one is supervising an internet course, although all courses are now advertised on internet and crosslisted with a larger internet university.

The spelling of "online" and "offline" are in accordance with the Ridley and Husband article.

Parenthetically, the authors have also submitted an article related to this subject entitled "Distance Learning, Web Sites, and Accreditation" which is a fairly concise overview of distance learning.

Dr. Joel Snell and Dr. Saul Mekies, Department of Social Sciences, Kirkwood College.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Joel Snell, Department of Social Sciences, Kirkwood College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2068.