Online versus face-to-face learning: looking at modes of instruction in Master's-level courses

This study examined performance of Master's-level students in an online course in Cognition, Learning and Assessment and compared it with the performance of students in a face-to-face classroom setting of the same course (N = 70). Data were collected from six sections of the course over a two-year period. The same professor taught all sections. Identical final exams plus two common assignments were used to determine whether there were differences in performance. An analysis of covariance, with graduate record exam scores as the covariate, was applied using each of the dependent variables. Students in the face-to-face class scored significantly higher on two out of the three measures.