A Comparative Study of Learning Outcomes for Online Learning Platforms

François St-Hilaire, Nathan Burns, Robert Belfer, Muhammad Shayan, Ariella Smofsky, Dung Do Vu, Antoine Frau, Joseph Potochny, Farid Faraji, Vincent Pavero, Neroli Ko, Ansona Onyi Ching, Sabina Elkins, Anush Stepanyan, Adela Matajova, Laurent Charlin, Yoshua Bengio, Iulian Vlad Serban, Ekaterina Kochmar

Abstract: Personalization and active learning help educational systems to close the gap between students with varying abilities. We run a comparative head-to-head study of learning outcomes for two popular online platforms: Platform A, which delivers content over lecture videos and multiple-choice quizzes, and Platform B, which provides interactive problem-solving exercises and personalized feedback. We observe a statistically significant increase in the learning outcomes on Platform B. Further, the results of the self-assessment questionnaire suggest that participants using Platform B improve their metacognition.