The effectiveness of Web-based instruction

As the Army focuses more on Web-based instruction as a delivery option for training, professional development, and education, it is important to understand its instructional effectiveness. A search of the literature between 1996 and 2002 identified more than 500 reports concerning Web-based courses, that is courses delivered over the Internet or an intranet and conveyed through a browser. Most concerned recommendations for design or technology issues rather than empirical measures of learning outcomes. From this larger set, 47 studies reported empirical measures of outcomes; of these, 15 studies reported data with sufficient detail to compute an effect size. The effect size, comparing Web-based instruction to conventional classroom instruction, was.24, which means the 'average'student moved from the 50th to the 59th percentile. In earlier analyses of the effectiveness of other forms of computer-based instruction, effects sizes of between.32 and.41 have been reported (corresponding to the 63rd and 66th percentiles). In terms of instructional effectiveness, it appears that current practices in Web-based instruction improve learning when compared to the classroom, but many more complete studies are needed before the full effect size is understood.