Meta Analysis - Stephanie Watson

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning

A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., Jones, K., Department of Education (ED), O., & SRI, I. (2009). Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. US Department of Education, Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED505824.pdf

1.      What were the measures used in this study?

2.      How did the researchers define “better”?

3.      How did the researchers define “performance?

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1.      What were the measures used in this study?

Only objective measures were used in this study that measured the difference between student learning outcomes in face to face vs. online learning. They measured between treatment and control means and divided the pooled standard deviation to measure the learning outcomes. Essentially they used test results of each group to determine the learning outcomes of each group  face to face, online, and blended.The studies they used had to distinguish between online teaching experience to a face to face teaching experience, or measure student learning outcomes that used control groups. If the study did not have a control group, it was thrown out.  (p. 51)

2.      How did the researchers define “better”?

Better is defined as p>.05 If the students did not do better than p>.05 it was not considered statistically relevant. (p.16-20)

3.      How did the researchers define “performance?

I really could not find a definition of performance but it seems to be that performance means how the students did on a test, or how the teachers viewed the online teaching experience vs. the Face to face method. It could also mean the acts completed to acquire the learning outcome. Anything that can provide data to examine for differences and results would be the Performance.

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