­A recent study showed that, in general, students studying psychology

 

Akriti_Khetawat , It's not E please read the option carefully

Prethinking: If there is a difference in learning gain it could be due to the difference in comprehension level or prior knowledge level or perhaps concentration.

Atleast we know that there could be a parity and we must evaluate if there is a parity indeed.

Only B and E ( E seems to ) points out the disparity between the two learner pool.

B. Whether the students who received their instruction via distance-education courses tended to be more highly motivated learners than were the students who did so via traditional classroom instruction ( this helps evaluate if there is an disparity ) - Correct option

E. Whether there were substantial differences with respect to previous exposure to psychological concepts among the students who received their instruction via distance education
 A gmat fashioned trick - It talks about disparity within the same pool ( the online learner pool )­

difference in concept level ofcourse matter but only if it is between the two pools

I had narrowed down my options to B and E but couldn't understand why is E chosen over B. I believe that having knowledge of concepts beforehand will help in better learning gains. Can you please explain?

­A recent study showed that, in general, students studying psychology who receive their instruction via distance-education courses show greater learning gains than do students studying psychology who receive traditional instruction in a classroom setting. Citing the result of this study as evidence, an advocate of distance education has claimed that, for teaching psychology, at least, distance education is actually the more effective of these two means of instruction.

The advocate's claim, or conclusion, is the following:

for teaching psychology, at least, distance education is actually the more effective of these two means of instruction

The support for that claim is the study results:

students studying psychology who receive their instruction via distance-education courses show greater learning gains than do students studying psychology who receive traditional instruction in a classroom setting."

So, basically, the advocate has observed a correlation between distance-education courses and greater learning gains and concluded that the distance-education format is the cause of the greater gains.
 
In order to evaluate whether the result of the study does indeed provide support for the advocate’s claim, it would be most useful to determine which of the following?

This is an Evaluate question, and the correct answer will be the one such that different answers to the question it presents will weaken or strengthen the support for the conclusion.

A. Whether all of the students studying psychology who received their instruction via distance-education courses had experience receiving traditional instruction in a classroom setting

The answers to this question have no effect on the strength of the argument.

After all, there's no clear connection between students having experience with classroom instruction and their getting better results via distance education.

Also, this choice doesn't compare the two groups of students. Answers to this question provide information about only the distance learners. So, even if having classroom instruction experience would make a difference, answers to this question would not explain the difference between the two groups because it's about only one of them.

Eliminate.

B. Whether the students who received their instruction via distance-education courses tended to be more highly motivated learners than were the students who did so via traditional classroom instruction

This choice is interesting.

After all, if the students who received their instruction via distance-education courses did tend to be more highly motivated learners, then we have a possible alternative reason for the difference in learning outcomes. In that case, it could be that distance-education courses are not more effective and that what's really going on is that greater motivation of the distance learners was the true cause of their greater learning gains.

So, a yes answer to this question weakens the argument.

Meanwhile, if, on the other hand, distance learners did not tend to be more motivated, then we have some addtional confirmation for the conclusion. After all, that information would serve to rule out the possibility that motivation, rather than distance education, was the reason for the greater learning gains of the distance learners.

So, a no answer to this question strengthens the argument.

Thus, different answers to this question weaken or strengthen the argument.

Keep.

C. Whether there are academic subjects that are better suited than psychology to be taught via distance-education courses

The answers to this question have no effect on strength of the argument.

After all, regardless of whether other subjects are better suited than psychology to be taught via distance-education courses, it could still be the case that distance-education courses are more effective than classroom courses for teaching psychology.

In other words, the point of the argument is not that psychology is better suited than other subjects for teaching via distance-education. The point is that, for one subject, psychology, distance-education is more effective. So, information about the effectiveness of distance-education courses in teaching other subjects makes no difference.

Eliminate.

D. Whether the advocate of distance education has had experience giving both classroom instruction and instruction via distance education

The answers to this question don't affect the strength of the argument.

After all, regardless of anything the advocate personally has done, the study results support the advocate's conclusion, and the advocate's having experienced or not having experienced giving the types of instruction wouldn't make any difference.

For example, if the advocate had had experience giving both types of instruction, what would that mean? It doesn't mean one or the other works better. It would just mean that the advocate had experienced them both.

Eliminate.

E. Whether there were substantial differences with respect to previous exposure to psychological concepts among the students who received their instruction via distance education

This choice is tricky. Why? Because it starts off seeming to do basically what we might expect the correct answer to do, bring up a difference between students that could be an alternative reason for the differences between the learning gains of the students who received instruction via the different types of courses.

So, having read the beginning of this choice, the part about "differences with respect to previous exposure to psychological concepts among the students," we could easily decide that it's the correct answer.

At the same time, if we carefully read this choice to the end, we see the following. It's not about differences between students who used the different types of courses. It's about only "the students who received their instruction via distance education."

Of course, differences among students who used one kind of education would not be a reason for the difference between the outcomes of the two different types of education.

So, regardless of what the answer to this question is, it doesn't affect the strength of the argument.

Eliminate.

Correct answer: B­