Mary Carmichael writes on the Boston Globe:

“The burgeoning movement to put more college classes online, which attracted the support of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier this month, is getting another endorsement that may have an even greater impact: rigorous evidence that the computer can be as effective as the classroom.

A new study compared two versions of an introductory statistics course, one taught face to face by professors and one mostly taught online with only an hour a week of face time. Researchers found students fared equally well in both formats on every measure of learning. The only difference was that the online group appeared to learn faster.”

This study comes from Ithaka S+R, a non-profit think-tank focused on technology and education. It is freely available for download. (1 MB PDF, CC BY-ND 3.0 license)

A radio piece on Boston NPR provides a broad overview of the study and a recent article on Inside Higher Ed digs a little deeper.

While I am obviously pleased to hear the findings of this study, a little alarm bell goes off in my head when I hear the words “think tank.” And the fact that the group says it also provides “consulting services for academic communities making the transition to the digital environment” makes that bell all the louder.