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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1432054
This article is part of the Research Topic Educational Transformation: 21st century skills and challenges for higher education View all 14 articles

The Impact of Extent and Variety in Active Learning Methods Across Online and Face-to-Face Education on Students' AssessmentCourse Evaluations

Provisionally accepted
Dizza Beimel Dizza Beimel *Arava Tsoury Arava Tsoury Zohar Barnett-Itzhaki Zohar Barnett-Itzhaki
  • Ruppin Academic Center, Hadera, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In recent years, numerous studies have compared traditional face-to-face (F2F) learning on campus with online learning, seeking to establish how the learning environment (online vs. F2F) affects outcomes such as student satisfaction and achievement. In a separate line of research, scholars have examined various facets of active learning-an approach that makes use of interactive learning methods-separately in online and F2F environments. However, few studies have compared the effects of active learning in classes taught online vs. F2F. The present study addresses this gap. It follows an earlier study in which we examined the effects of active learning in an online environment, particularly how the extent and variety of interactive teaching methods used affect students' course evaluations (overall evaluations and perceived clarity of the teaching). The present study repeats the setup of that previous study in a F2F environment, allowing us both to gain new insights into the effects of active learning in this context and also to directly compare the examined outcomes in F2F vs. online learning. The results reveal consistent trends in both studies: more extensive and more varied use of interactive learning methods improves overall student evaluations and perceptions of the clarity of teaching in the course. Crucially, minimal use of interactive teaching methods results in notably lower student evaluations and perceptions of teaching clarity in face-to-face (F2F) settings compared to online classes. This The findings highlights the essential need for instructors to adopt diverse interactive methods in F2F environments to improve educational outcomes and reinforce the effectiveness of active learning.

    Keywords: Active Learning, Interactive learning methods, student evaluation, Online Learning, F2F learning

    Received: 13 May 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Beimel, Tsoury and Barnett-Itzhaki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dizza Beimel, Ruppin Academic Center, Hadera, Israel

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.