We reported earlier this month that MIT and Harvard University were partnering up to offer free online courses under the name edX. The partnership is set to officially launch in the fall of 2012, MIT and Harvard are rumored to have invested over $30 million each in edX.
Today’s news however, makes this partnership even more valuable with a studying being released noting that online classes are just as effective as the classroom.
The study compared a two statistic courses, one conducted online and the other in the classroom. Researchers found that both groups achieved the same results and even noted that the online group learned at a quicker pace than those in the classroom.
The report was issued today by Ithaka S+R and is the first major study to find online college classes to be just as effective as the college classroom. The report is a major step towards greater acceptance of online degrees. Even as this report shows that both methods are effective, online education is still very much so in its infancy.
