If citing please use: Middleton, Dave (2011) 'Is face to face teaching more effective than online teaching' Google Blog page Learning about e-learning
Please note that all references will appear in a separate blog posting titled Bibliography
In teaching tutors how to use Elluminate to deliver online tutorials there are always some who want to argue that online learning cannot possibly be as effective as face to face delivery. This is often expressed more as an article of faith than a thought through evidence-based position. It strikes me that in promoting the use of e-learning this 'attitude' of tutors is an obstacle that has to be overcome. If people taking a course on how to use an online learning tool are sceptical of its value then what of those who don't even engage with the online medium in the first place?
There are a number of variables in this equation, but for now we can narrow it down somewhat. First, we have tutors (or lecturers/teachers). Second, we have learners (or students). Then we have teaching and learning (TL) and this is mediated to some extent by educational technologies (ET) of one sort or another. In the context of online learning we might need to consider the digital literacy (DL) of both students and tutors.
Very often when people claim that something is not as good as something else they are expressing nothing more than a preference. I suspect that this may be the case when tutors suggest that there is something about the face to face experience which is irreplaceable. After all, the amount of research on face to face teaching is fairly limited.
One study which asked students to rate their tutors was carried out in the early 1990's by Millington (1992) who found that students rated expert knowledge as the most essential attribute. The personality of the tutor whilst important was less important than the professional competence. However, the role of humour in facilitating learning was important to students. Millington notes: "A dour, humourless tutor was seen to be demotivating and boring. Humour.. breaks the tension in tutorials and helps students to accept criticism. In particular, the students associated humour with liveliness and a broad experiential knowledge as the three most important personality attributes for a tutor." (Millington, 1992: 213)
A more recent paper by Revell and Wainwright (2009) looked at the different perceptions of students and lecturers. Both sides agreed that a good 'lecture' included:
- a high degree of student participation and interaction;
- a clear structure and clearly identified key points;
- a passionate and enthusiastic lecturer.
What is interesting is that whilst, on first reading, it appears that tutors and students agree on what makes a good educational experience, on closer examination we can see that students are more focussed upon the instrumental value of teaching, whilst tutors are more focussed on the performance element of what they do. Perhaps this is because lecturers can afford to take their own subject knowledge for granted in a way that students certainly cannot.
In terms of the arguments about the desirability of face to face and online teaching, it is not clear that what makes a face to face learning experience useful could not be easily translated to an online environment.
