Research Reviews

This week’s research post is somewhat unusual in that it comes from a non-educational research group at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the US. Further, the research is free to US residents as well as residents of developing and third world countries but it is not free (cost AUD$5), which is very irritating, to residents of developed countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and other OECD countries. Education and science are known for operating collaboratively on a global scale but it would appear not where economists at NBER are involved However, the research working paper, by David Figlio, Mark Rush and Lu Yin is interesting, if not contentious. Is it live or is it Internet? Experimental estimates of the effects of online instruction on student learning (2010) examines the learning affects of two modes educational delivery – face-to-face or the Internet.