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A Meta-Analysis of Three Types of Interaction Treatments in Distance Education

Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

ROBERT M. BERNARD is a professor of education at Concordia University and a member of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, LB-581, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; e-mail: bernard{at}education.concordia.ca. His research interests are in educational technology and distance education. His methodological expertise is in statistics, research design, and meta-analysis.

PHILIP C. ABRAMI is professor, research chair, and director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, Concordia University, LB-581, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; e-mail: abrami{at}education.concordia.ca. His research interests include educational technology, social psychology of education, and research synthesis.

EUGENE BOROKHOVSKI holds a PhD in experimental psychology and is a postdoctoral fellow and systematic review projects coordinator at the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, Concordia University, LB-581, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; e-mail: eborokhovski{at}education.concordia.ca. His area of research interests includes cognitive and educational psychology, language acquisition, and methodology of systematic reviews, meta-analyses in particular.

C. ANNE WADE (MLIS) is a manager and information specialist at the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance, Concordia University, LB-581, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; e-mail: anne.wade{at}education.concordia.ca. Her expertise is in information literacy, information storage and retrieval, and research strategies. She has worked and taught extensively in the field of information sciences for 20 years.

RANA M. TAMIM is a recent PhD graduate in educational technology at Concordia University, LB-581, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; e-mail: rana.tamim{at}education.concordia.ca. Her research interests focus on the role of computer technology in facilitating learning, as well as science education, generative learning strategies, and meaningful learning.

MICHAEL A. SURKES is a recent PhD graduate in educational technology at Concordia University, LB-581, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; e-mail: surkes{at}education.concordia.ca. His academic qualifications include degrees in physiological psychology, experimental psychology, and philosophy, and his research concerns meta-cognition, meta-motivation, and the development of complex and coherent conceptual frameworks.

EDWARD CLEMENT BETHEL is a PhD candidate in educational technology at Concordia University, LB-581, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; e-mail: e_bethel{at}education.concordia.ca. His research interests include one-to-one laptop computing programs, learning objects and learning design, human cognition and multimedia learning, cognitive load theory, and research synthesis.

This meta-analysis of the experimental literature of distance education (DE) compares different types of interaction treatments (ITs) with other DE instructional treatments. ITs are the instructional and/or media conditions designed into DE courses, which are intended to facilitate student–student (SS), student–teacher (ST), or student–content (SC) interactions. Seventy-four DE versus DE studies that contained at least one IT are included in the meta-analysis, which yield 74 achievement effects. The effect size valences are structured so that the IT or the stronger IT (i.e., in the case of two ITs) serve as the experimental condition and the other treatment, the control condition. Effects are categorized as SS, ST, or SC. After adjustment for methodological quality, the overall weighted average effect size for achievement is 0.38 and is heterogeneous. Overall, the results support the importance of the three types of ITs and strength of ITs is found to be associated with increasing achievement outcomes. A strong association is found between strength and achievement for asynchronous DE courses compared to courses containing mediated synchronous or face-to-face interaction. The results are interpreted in terms of increased cognitive engagement that is presumed to be promoted by strengthening ITs in DE courses.

Key Words: distance education • meta-analysis • student interaction • interaction treatment

This version was published on September 1, 2009

Review of Educational Research, Vol. 79, No. 3, 1243-1289 (2009)
DOI: 10.3102/0034654309333844


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