Date

2-2016

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Chick Holland, Scott Watson

Keywords

Digital Learning, End-of-Course Tests, Instructional Model, Online Learning, Student Acheivement Outcomes, Virtual Learning

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Methods | Higher Education | Online and Distance Education

Abstract

Although virtual education options have rapidly expanded in recent years, little academic research has examined the effectiveness of these courses. Furthermore, little research has been conducted at the secondary school level for public school students. Policymakers and school leaders need reliable research in order to make informed decisions about online learning and to implement programs, which add value to the quality of instruction and provide students with the support they need to be successful. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of instructional model on student achievement for public high school English II students. The high school English II students were divided into two groups. One group was traditional instructional model, enrolled in a face-to-face English II course. The other group enrolled in the exact same course in an online classroom. Each group of students had one dedicated teacher using the exact curriculum and pacing guides. The purpose was to determine if there was a statistically significant disparity between the traditional and online students based on the standardized North Carolina End-of-Course exam scores measured by a series of t tests and a two-way ANOVA. The null hypothesis will be accepted or rejected. Descriptive statistics were collected and analyzed. The findings for this research study indicated that online instructional models were as effective as traditional instructional models. No statistically significant differences were revealed between instructional models based on gender. However, Caucasian performance outcomes were higher in the online instructional model. Hispanic student achievement outcomes were slightly higher in a traditional classroom than Hispanic student’s achievement outcomes in an online instructional model. Overall, the findings for virtual and traditional classrooms showed no significant differences in student achievement outcomes on the English II North Carolina End-of-Course exam. The researcher concludes that students performed equally well in online instruction as compared to traditional instruction.

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