ONLINE EDUCATION

By Jared Muir
COMM 2500
Julie Gay
26 April 2016

Online education is not one of the newest technologies out there but it is young enough
that it is still tracked and researched to learn more about it and how to improve. There is quite the
extensive research done due to the years it lacks but we will go through the research we have.
Throughout the course of this paper I will be going through various subjects. First our main
focus points will be the effects of online peer to peer interactions. Secondly we will discuss the
economic positive and negative attributes.
EFFECTS OF PEER TO PEER INTERACTIONS
What is online education? It is the study of courses through online interactions with
teachers and peers. There was a study done by individuals associated with Stern AHealth. Their
main objective is To compile and evaluate the evidence on the effects on health and social
outcomes of computer based peer to peer communities and electronic self-support groups.
Essentially that means they want to find out the effects of online peer to peer interactions. Is it
good? Bad? What can we take from this?
Their method was to seek randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials,
and cohort studies in order to draw conclusions. The group retrieved observational and
qualitative studies, surveys, and analyses of content of community interactions. They then used
those to inform the background and discussions although they did not analytically search for
these studies. They found anything they could find from any language to any author, mainly what
fit their methods best. They also placed a virtual community which focused on health or
healthcare issues in any sense relating to emotional and social support as well as health education
or health related behavior change.

To search for these articles they set up a criteria based on three combined concepts, to
maximize recall we applied no methodological factors. In order to not only focus on just the
medical side they extensively searched across multiple databases to include social sciences into
their research. They had two pairs of reviewers who decide whether or not the full paper should
be obtained. From all of the databases combined they screened a total of 12,288 papers and they
selected only 76 of those publications for retrieval of full text. Out of all retrieved there were
forty five publications which met their inclusion criteria.
Out of those publications there were six which dealt with pure peer to peer interactions.
Along with that there were thirty one studies which showed complex interactions between the
peer and health professionals. Within the six studies dealing with pure peer to peer interactions
there were none which were identified as randomized trials. All six studies reported that were
was some degree of assistances by a health professional. All studies were necessarily unblended
and most outcomes were self-reported.
Even with extensive research there was a failure to find evidence on the health benefits of
virtual communities and peer to peer online support. This absence of evidence does not mean
that online communities have no effect and there are several explanations for the lack of
evidence. As of right now there is little interest in conducting research dealing with pure online
communities and peer to peer interactions. Studies which investigate natural self-help processes
are hard to recreate in a controlled facility and may create it to be underpowered. There was also
a failure of many authors to show an effect of online communities because participants may not
have a desire to communicate with other people. Along with that if participants are taken at
random or off the street it can cause for the wrong population.

Within all research conducted there was no online relationships which were less valuable
than offline ones. There were no negative effects shown within any conclusions of the articles
which were pulled for full text. There was also a possibility to have missed more complex
research due to the fact only one database has a subject heading. There was a concern of
publications bias which they attempted to minimize by including five dissertations.
Online communities are used endlessly by millions each day and are therefore promising
interventions. Whether or not online communities prosper from professional moderation is still
unclear. With the exception of two studies all of the articles used professional moderation. It is
also not clear if online communities can substitute face to face support groups. This is unclear
due to one study showing a higher connectivity thorough a support group and another study
showing it was less effective. Even though qualitative studies are needed and give wonderful
insights to peoples self-helping process, quantitative research is needed to decide which
populations these studies are most effective on.
ECONOMIC ATTRIBUTES
With research done by the Pearson and Sloan Consortium groups we will go through
economic attributes of online education. First lets define a MOOCs; a MOOCs is a Massive
Open Online Course(s). As of right now there is only a very small segment of higher education
institutions which are experimenting with MOOCs and most institutions remain undecided. The
number of students which take online classes increased by over 570.000 to a new total of 6.7
million students which is a growth rate of 9.3 percent.
The percentage of leaders which think that it takes more faculty time and effort to teach
online has increases from 41.4 percent to 44.6 percent over a ten year course. As for private

institutions that number dropped from 31.6 percent to 24.2 percent in the course of six years. If
more teachers believe it is more difficult to teach these online courses it is likely less will be
taught which reduces the number of courses available taking away opportunity for a students
education who might not be able to make it to class.
There is a high level of agreement among leaders in academic offices that MOOCs
represent an important way for institutions to learn about online education. In studies conducted
there were less than twenty percent of all the institutions which disagree with that statement.
Only a minority of those leaders believe that MOOCs have the potential to attract potential
students to their institutions.
The proportion of higher education students taking at least one online course stands at 32
percent as of fall 2011. The first reports in this specific series back in fall of 2002 measured that
1.6 million higher education students were taking at least one of their courses online. Due to the
fact almost all higher education institutions were offering some form of online education the
growth in online enrollment could not have come from new online offerings.
In a more macroeconomic view the online education is a better idea to keep continuing in
each higher education school due to the availability. If the average student has more reason to
take more classes or if a non-student doesnt go to school because of expenses this is their
alternative source. If online education gets more people involved with their education we can
push out more degrees to students, get them in higher paying better jobs, and create a larger
economic return. With that revenue the individual has now earned they are likely to put it back
into the economy which boosts it and keeps the cycle going. Online education can cause for a
healthy economy and has no negative peer to peer effects.

Works Cited
Allen, I. Elaine, and Jeff Seaman. Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in
the United States. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950, 2013.

Eysenbach, Gunther, et al. "Health related virtual communities and electronic support groups:
systematic review of the effects of online peer to peer interactions." Bmj 328.7449 (2004): 1166.

Allen, I. Elaine, and Jeff Seaman. Learning on demand: Online education in the United States,
2009. Sloan Consortium. PO Box 1238, Newburyport, MA 01950, 2010.