Online Education in the Broader Context: Are Live Applied Mathematics Classes Superior to Online‪?‬

Abstract This paper presents research showing that students taking an online applied mathematics course in operations management are scoring as well (two percent higher) on the same tests being given to the live class sections. Statistical analysis of the data collected so far indicates that on three of four tests given to all of the students (online and live) that there is no statistical difference in the scores. This study details the course management system, especially the WebCT testing setup that has been used in all of the class sections for this study, in addition to the data from 155 students that have taken the course from the same professor and coauthor of this paper.