Difference between Online and On-site Mathematics Courses in Higher Education

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Mathematics Education
• Higher Education Studies

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid shift from traditional on-site education to online learning models in higher education.
• This transition prompted questions about the efficacy and comparative outcomes of online versus traditional in-person instruction, particularly in quantitative subjects like mathematics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and quantify the differences in academic achievement between students learning mathematics online and those learning on-site in a higher education setting.
• To provide empirical data that can guide institutions in developing effective online mathematics courses.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of final exam grades for students who completed the same mathematics course.
• Comparison of academic results between two groups: those who learned online and those who learned on-site.
• Data sourced from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UBT University, Kosovo.

Main Results:

• A small difference was observed between online and on-site learning outcomes in mathematics.
• Students in the online learning environment demonstrated slightly superior performance compared to their on-site counterparts in the arithmetic course.
• The findings suggest that online mathematics instruction can be as effective, if not more so, than traditional methods.

Conclusions:

• Online mathematics learning in higher education yields comparable, and in some cases better, results than on-site learning.
• Higher education institutions can leverage these findings to enhance the quality and effectiveness of their online course offerings.
• The study contributes valuable insights for the future of mathematics education in the digital age.