Traditional vs. online education: A comparative analysis of learner outcomes

For many years, a void existed where adult learners were unable or discouraged from pursuing further educational desires and expectations due to complex lifestyles, full-time careers, family issues, and social interests. Online education arose as a likely solution to fill this void and provide adult learners and those excluded from the traditional educational environment with a viable educational alternative. Over the past decade, the adult learner has become the majority class of post-secondary students (Stallings, 2002).; Many studies suggest that there is no significant difference in course assessments and outcomes between traditional and distance learners (Russell, 1999) and that the instructional strategy makes the difference, not the medium by which it is transmitted (Morrison, 2001). The purpose of this quasi-experimental study is to assess whether there is a significant difference in learner outcomes based upon the course delivery format, gender, marital status, age, number of children, age of the youngest child, employment status, income, highest educational level, and computer-related proficiencies.; Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were run to determine if there were significant differences in final exam and overall course scores between the traditional and online learners taking nearly identical introductory environmental science courses with the same instructor. Online learners were found to score significantly higher than traditional learners on final exams. There was insufficient statistical evidence to conclude that there was a significant difference in final exam and overall course scores among all of the demographic variables with the exception of marital status. Significant differences were observed with marital status, where married learners scored higher than single, separated, divorced, and widowed learners.; In general, the results of this study favor Russell's no significant difference phenomenon hypothesis; however, the findings indicated that the typical demographic measurements did not appear to make a difference in who was successful in the different course formats. As such, future studies might focus on additional explanatory variables and expanding this study with a larger population, which includes the full range of respondents, and different course instructors to validate any significant results.