Is Online Education Truly Beneficial?  
Amy E. Highland

Online education has been referred to as the Future of Education.  Is this true and if so, how will it benefit the average student?

At Tutors To You we feel that online education is in fact the future of education.  Particularly for homeschooling families.  Online education, sometimes referred to as distance education provides many opportunities to supplement a students curriculum with subjects which may be beyond the expertise of their teaching parent.   Online education as a full curriculum is a tool which will heighten the students educational experience beyond that of a text book.  For instance, if your son is interested in taking a Geography class, a high quality online course will not only provide the text information but also bring the world alive for him.  Distance education courses can be utilized both for an individual as well as in a group setting.  The flexibility of online education will fit not only your child’s learning style but also your current circumstances and schedules.

Online learning focuses more on the student.  More information i.e. questions or comments often flow from the student to the system.  The result of learners constructing their own learning, is that they are active learners.  This type of active learning forces the learning program to be a guide to the learner.  Online learners have more responsibility for their learning, and as such develop more advanced learning styles.

Research Evidence

Recent research has shown that combining computers with cooperative learning strategies "promoted greater quantity and quality of daily achievement, more successful problem-solving, and higher performance on factual recognition, application, and problem-solving test items than did computers and competitive [environments] or computers and individualized learning."(1)

These studies have also found that there is a much higher level of student excitement in using a technology-based, cooperative lesson, which often extended beyond  the classroom or learning environment. “Students continued to utilize forms of technology from their lesson six weeks after their project had ended. In addition, students actively made connections with other content areas.” (1)

Amy Highland
The Homeschool Internet Resource Center
hschool@rsts.net 
http://www.rsts.net