[Air-L] Using brick-space measures- Online Education Beats the Classroom

[Steve Cavrak]

On Aug 19, 2009, at 2:56 PM, tom abeles wrote:

> Has anyone suggested that the brick and click comparisons may be  
> measuring the wrong variables. with the changing nature of knowledge  
> and knowledge acquisition? In other words are the studies measuring  
> what could be measured using an old lens and the easiest variables  
> to assess, like the drunk looking for keys where the light is rather  
> than in the dark where they were dropped?

 From my reading, the (meta) study was of 99 cases of a course that  
had two sections - an online section and a non-online section. So yes,  
they were measuring by the old standard, and yes, the new approach did  
old things better than the old way.

In someway, it addresses faculty's apprehension of "doing worse"  
rather "doing better."  (It also illustrates the first law of "new  
media" - the first content of new media is old media.

Once faculty get comfortable with the newer format, often they get  
quite innovative. And yes, as iTunes U and YouTube show, often they  
fossilize their old methods.

Steve