Effects of Online versus Face-to-Face Instruction on Students’ Mathematical Reasoning
Abstract: This study examined the effects of online and face-to-face instruction on students’ ability to solve problems requiring different levels of mathematical reasoning. Forty-eight college students’ (24 online and 24 face-to-face) final exam papers were analyzed. Through using the Webb (2002)’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework, the problems on the final exams were grouped into three different levels of reasoning; recall, skills/concepts, and strategic thinking. The results revealed that online students displayed higher performance than their peers in face-to-face courses on the “recall” type of items. On the other hand, students in face-to-face courses obtained greater achievement on the “skills/concepts” and “strategic thinking” types of problems than online students. The findings of the study suggest that instructional activities in online settings need to concentrate on improving students’ abilities to solve the problems requiring high levels of mathematical reasoning.