How Does Distance Education Compare With Classroom Instruction? A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature
2004/09/01 by R Bernard, Robert M. Bernard, Philip C. Abrami +8 · 1,777 citations
Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Academic achievement #Asynchronous communication #Computer science #Distance education #Education and Technology Integration #Empirical research #Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods #Mathematics #Mathematics education #Meta-analysis #Online and Blended Learning #Psychology #Statistics #Student achievement
paper · doi:10.3102/00346543074003379
published in Review of Educational Research 74(3), 379-439 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2004/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract
A meta-analysis of the comparative distance education (DE) literature between 1985 and 2002 was conducted. In total, 232 studies containing 688 independent achievement, attitude, and retention outcomes were analyzed. Overall results indicated effect sizes of essentially zero on all three measures and wide variability. This suggests that many applications of DE outperform their classroom counterparts and that many perform more poorly. Dividing achievement outcomes into synchronous and asynchronous forms of DE produced a somewhat different impression. In general, mean achievement effect sizes for synchronous applications favored classroom instruction, while effect sizes for asynchronous applications favored DE. However, significant heterogeneity remained in each subset.
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