Teaching on the web

[Stanley Dunn]

On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Julian Gibbs wrote:

>      At a recent lunch conversation with colleagues from all over the
>      University, a chemistry prof reported on a recent trial in his
>      discipline.  Learning performance, measured by a final exam, in a
>      college chemistry course was measured in three randomly-assigned
>      groups: traditional large-audience lecture, small classes, and
>      individualized learning.  Guess who performed best.  That's right, the
>      traditional lecture group.

Conclusion:
>      It seems that the traditional lecture is a very efficient means of
>      information transfer.

It is not clear to me that one can draw Julian's conclusion on the basis
of the information available in his post.  It seems to me that in this
case the measurement tool is "matched" to the method of instructional delivery.
Who would fair best if you had a different method of measuring
performance?  This is a weak study and the conclusions cannot be drawn
from the methods.

Stan