What does this have to do with higher education? High gas prices got adult learners questioning the value of driving an hour each way to a college campus. Suddenly, online learning became vastly more attractive to a whole segment of higher education's market. Articles about fuel prices driving students to online courses became as prevalent as those about the impact of the recession on higher education are right now. While the price of fuel has retreated to a more manageable range, the number of Americans flocking to online higher education has shown no such decline.

A new analysis of existing online-learning research by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) reveals that students who took all or part of their class on line performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction. Most of the studies examined by researchers dealt with college-level courses, and ED officials cautioned against generalizing the report's findings to the K-12 level. Still, the report could help educators as they seek to create effective learning environments for all students.