Masters Degree Online

Online Education From Bachelors To Masters

As the use of online master degree expands, concerns are being expressed about the quality and appropriateness of Web-based courses and programs in comparison with traditional in-class instruction. A significant criticism of distance education is that the changing nature of student-instructor interaction undermines the academic quality of courses delivered outside of a physical classroom. However, Markel argues that pedagogy should not differ according to instructional mode and that effective teaching is not exclusively accomplished by face-to-face instruction. Others investigating the changing nature of interactive communication and its effect on distance education have offered specific solutions to overcome any problems associated with on-line interactivity.

Some researchers believe that on-line education may be inappropriate for certain academic programs or courses. For example, Clow concluded that using interactive distance learning as an instructional methodology appears to be appropriate for graduate programs, but may be a problem for undergraduate programs of study. This conclusion was based on a study of student evaluations from several different graduate and undergraduate courses. Some researchers, however, report that an on-line option for their courses worked just as well as the traditional classroom option in an undergraduate course of study.

The research that directly contrasts academic achievement in Web-based delivery with traditional classroom delivery of business education content is fairly limited and has conflicting conclusions. One study reported a statistically significant higher failure rate for on-line students, whereas other studies have found that "distance learners" achieved a significantly higher grade than the "in-class students". Those mixed conclusions may be the result of factors such as variable methods of course delivery in different studies, variable analytic rigor across studies or, possibly, poor experimental control.

A typical characteristic and weakness of most of these studies is a failure to use a pre- and post-test experimental design that minimizes the variation between the traditional and on-line offerings. In addition, inferential statistical testing was absent in most cases and, when it was used, did not typically account for other influential variables.