Determining the effectiveness of web-based distance education in mitigating the rural-urban achievement gap
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This study was designed to understand how the delivery method of web-based distance courses compares to that used in classroom-based courses and to determine whether students in web-based distance courses perform on par with those in classroom-based courses, if given the same contexts. Until this is more fully understood, any differences in achievement levels between web-based distance courses and classroom-based courses will be poorly understood, leaving the potential that future decision-making will be based on simplistic notions related to any existing differences. It is the intent of this study to compare student achievement between web-based distance and classroom-based courses with particular focus on determining the effectiveness of web-based distance education in lessening the rural-urban achievement gap. -- The data for this study came from the Department of Education, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Center for Distance Learning and Innovation, Newfoundland and Labrador. I studied two cohorts of high school chemistry and physics students who completed Level II and Level III science courses between September 2002 and June 2005. These students were categorized into four groups based on locality (rural or urban) and course delivery method (classroom-based or web-based). The categories were as follows: (1) urban students who enrolled only in classroom-based chemistry and physics courses, (2) rural students who enrolled only in classroom-based chemistry and physics courses, (3) rural students who enrolled in Level II classroom-based chemistry and physics courses and Level III web-based chemistry and physics courses, and (4) rural students who enrolled only in web-based chemistry and physics courses. A repeated measures general linear model was used to predict students' achievement in the Level II and Level III chemistry and physics courses in each of the above noted categories. -- The main finding from this analysis was that there were no achievement differences between urban students who enrolled only in classroom-based chemistry and physics courses, and rural students who enrolled only in web-based chemistry and physics courses. However, there was an achievement difference between urban and rural students who enrolled in Level III classroom-based chemistry and physics courses. Consequently, I conclude that web-based distance education chemistry and physics courses delivered through CDLI are not only as effective as the physics and chemistry courses offered in the traditional classroom-based environment, but they have the potential to overcome the achievement gap between rural and urban students that has traditionally favored the urban students.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".