Evaluating student use of Web-based course material.

Evaluating student use of Web-based course material. Course management software and on-line course material are becomingmore available.. As a result, many instructors have developed WebCTcourse Web sites to deliver on-line course material that supplementslecture topics. The present study examined associations between studentcharacteristics, course performance, and access of Web-CT coursematerial. We tracked and coded patterns of Web usage by 154 students ina Psychology as a Profession course. Frequency of student access toWeb-based material correlated cor��re��late?v. cor��re��lat��ed, cor��re��lat��ing, cor��re��latesv.tr.1. To put or bring into causal, complementary, parallel, or reciprocal relation.2. positively with grades on courseassignments. Females accessed the home page more often than males.Self-reports from students evaluated the course Website as highlyvaluable. These results suggest important advantages in supplementinglecture courses with on-line material.**********A national survey revealed that psychology faculty view theInternet InternetPublicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the as an effective teaching tool (Vodanovich & Piotrowski Piotrowski - Polish House of Peter Surname origin - PolishThe first Piotrowski, Peter, High Duke of Poland is direct descendents of Catherine Jagiellon (Polish: Katarzyna Jagiellonka; Finnish: Katariina Jagellonica; Swedish: ,2001). The present study aimed to determine what features of Web-basedcourse material relate to subsequent course performance and whetheraccess to the material varied by student characteristics. Publishedexamples describe the incorporation of Web-based assignments and coursesupplements to enhance introductory psychology (Waschull, 2001), socialpsychology (Goldstein Gold��stein, Joseph Leonard Born 1940.American biochemist. He shared a 1985 Nobel Prize for discoveries related to cholesterol metabolism. 1998; Lawson, 2000; Sherman 1998) and experimental(Goolkasian, Wallendael, & Gaultney, 2003) or research methodscourses (Couch A couch, loveseat, sofa, settee, lounge, davenport or chesterfield are items of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person. Compare the joiner's settle, with its separate seat cushions. 1997; Rosen & Petty Pettygirl airbrushed beauty, scantily clad in Esquire’s pages. [Am. Lit.: Misc.]See : Sex Symbols 1997). Unlike the attendanceroster in lecture or classroom courses, it is not always certain withWeb-based course material how often students "attend" the Website or interact directly with the on-line material.One might ask from a skeptical point of view what value, if any, isassociated with student utilization of a course Website. Couch (1997)designed a research methods course Web site to present lecture notes,handouts, and study guides. Previously, students had purchased a coursepacket containing these supplementary materials at the start of thesemester se��mes��ter?n.One of two divisions of 15 to 18 weeks each of an academic year.[German, from Latin (cursus) s . The Web site offered an immediate advantage to students, whono longer had to pay for a course packet or possibly lose it. Likewise,the instructor no longer needed to prepare the packet in advance: theinstructor could add or revise materials on the Web site throughout thesemester. Based on course evaluation A course evaluation is a paper or electronic questionnaire, which requires a written or selected response answer to a series of questions in order to evaluate the instruction of a given course. results, students reported theyaccessed the course Web site an average of three times per week. All ofthe students liked having access to the lecture notes, and 95% of thestudents felt that other instructors should develop similar course Websites (Couch 1997).In another study, Rosen and Petty (1997) found that students whoenrolled in a Web-supplemented research methods course rated on-linedatabases Noun 1. on-line database - (computer science) a database that can be accessed by computerscomputer database, electronic database, electronic information service as more useful at the end of the semester than at thebeginning of the semester. Goolkasian et al. (2003) intensely studiedthe response of students enrolled in a cognitive science cognitive scienceInterdisciplinary study that attempts to explain the cognitive processes of humans and some higher animals in terms of the manipulation of symbols using computational rules. course designedaround 12 Web-based course material modules. In general, studentsfavorably fa��vor��a��ble?adj.1. Advantageous; helpful: favorable winds.2. Encouraging; propitious: a favorable diagnosis.3. rated the Web site and the "readability read��a��ble?adj.1. Easily read; legible: a readable typeface.2. Pleasurable or interesting to read: a readable story. " and"usefulness" of the modules. A high percentage (54%) of thestudents indicated that the Web site was more useful than a traditionaltextbook textbookInformatics A treatise on a particular subject. See Bible. .Other research has found that Web-based course material can be aseffective as traditional teaching methods. In a research methods course,student response to an interactive, Web-based tutorial An instructional book or program that takes the user through a prescribed sequence of steps in order to learn a product. Contrast with documentation, which, although instructional, tends to group features and functions by category. See tutorials in this publication. was compared toan in-class lecture demonstration of the sampling distribution (Aberson,Berger, Healy, Kyle <noinclude></noinclude>''This article or section is being rewritten atOne derivation of the surname is from the Scottish Highland word caol, 'channel', or 'strait'. There are other possible derivations (see below). , & Romero 2000). Students in both the in-classand Web tutorial conditions improved equally on pre/post-test quizzes onthe sampling distribution, and students in the Web tutorial conditionrated the tutorial as useful and educational as students in the in-classlecture evaluated the demonstration.Other research has analyzed an��a��lyze?tr.v. an��a��lyzed, an��a��lyz��ing, an��a��lyz��es1. To examine methodically by separating into parts and studying their interrelations.2. Chemistry To make a chemical analysis of.3. patterns of student use of Web-basedcourse material to examine how it relates to student course performanceor individual difference variables. Wang (Wang Laboratories, Inc., Lowell, MA) A computer services and network integration company. Wang was one of the major early contributors to the computing industry from its founder's invention that made core memory possible, to leadership in desktop calculators and word processors. and Newlin (2000) examinedcharacteristics of psychology students who chose to enroll in apsychology research methods course taught entirely on the Internet. Theyfound that final course grades were predicted by the number of times astudents accessed the homepage as well as personality variables (i.e.,need for cognition Main article: Elaboration likelihood modelThe need for cognition, in psychology, is a personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. and internal locus of control locus of controln.A theoretical construct designed to assess a person's perceived control over his or her own behavior. The classification internal locus indicates that the person feels in control of events; external locus ). Meyer's (reviewof 30 studies comparing Web-based versus traditional classes recognizedthe strong influence of individual differences on learning outcomes.In a study with dental students, supplemental quizzes were providedon a Web-CT course Web site (Henley, 2003). Students accessed thequizzes less frequently as the semester progressed, ranging from a highof 90% of students at the beginning of the semester to 50% during thefinal week. Students who earned the highest course grades accessed thesite twice as often as students who earned the lowest course grades. Ona course evaluation form, 80% of the students rated the supplementalquizzes as "helpful."In a study conducted with students enrolled in a developmentalbiology Developmental biologyA large field of investigation that includes the study of all changes associated with an organism as it progresses through the life cycle. The life cycles of all multicellular organisms exhibit many similarities. course, Stith (2000) reported equivocal EQUIVOCAL. What has a double sense. 2. In the construction of contracts, it is a general rule that when an expression may be taken in two senses, that shall be preferred which gives it effect. Vide Ambiguity; Construction; Interpretation; and Dig. findings between Website usage and course performance. Although total page hits did notcorrelate with final grade, the number of articles students read on theWeb site bulletin board showed a consistent positive pattern with gradesearned in the course.Likewise, Goolkasian et al. (2003) did not find any systematicrelationship between final course grade and time spent viewing thecourse Web site. However, the authors were cautious about this findingdue to the relatively small number of psychology students enrolled. Theyconcluded that in-class attendance was a better predictor of courseperformance than on-line material access.As an extension of previous research, we examined the relationshipbetween course performance, student characteristics, and use ofWeb-based supplemental course material among psychology students. Unlikesome of the previous studies in which the authors assessed performanceof students who self-select their enrollment into a Web-based version ofa course, we include data from all enrolled students. To furtherconsider the generalizability of previous findings, we also examined thepatterns of Web usage within a professional development course, ratherthan a laboratory or statistics course. We obtained demographiccharacteristics from students at the time of their enrollment in thecourse: year in school, grade point average, and gender.MethodParticipantsDuring the Spring 2003 semester, 168 undergraduate studentsenrolled in a Psychology as a Profession course (Psychology 201) at alarge public university. Data from 154 students were included in thedata analysis, excluding 14 students who withdrew. A power analysisshowed that a sample of 154 participants affords sufficient power(>.90) to detect correlational relationships of rho=.26 or greater atan alpha= .05, two-tailed test two-tailed testa test in which both 'large' and 'small' values of the test statistic indicate that the null hypothesis is not correct. .All psychology pre-majors must pass this one-credit, pass-failcourse to enter the major. The course content includes undergraduateadvising information, job search strategies, employment opportunities,and interaction with professional guest speakers. We developed a WebCT(//http:www.WebCT. com) course Web site, as described below, to presentsupplemental course material (Cohen cohenor kohen(Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. , Futoran, Thorn thorn, in botanythorn,sharp-pointed projection on some plants, usually protective in function. Botanically, thorns are distinguished as modified stems (as in the honey locust and hawthorn) from spines, which are modified leaves (as in the barberry), and , & Karraker,2000) and pilot tested the Web site over several semesters (Cohen &Murray Murray, river, AustraliaMurray,principal river of Australia, 1,609 mi (2,589 km) long, rising in the Australian Alps, SE New South Wales, and flowing westward to form the New South Wales–Victoria boundary. , 2000).A high percentage of the 133 students passed (87%) with gradingbased on the course performance measures described below. The majorityof students were female (62%), undergraduates (36% freshman, 40 %sophomore, 30% junior, and 4% senior). Most students were pre-psychologymajors (88%), and, when asked, 87% planned to declare a major inpsychology, and 13% remained uncertain whether they would major inpsychology.MeasuresCourse performance. Grading was based on out-of-class assignments,participation, final exam Noun 1. final exam - an examination administered at the end of an academic termfinal examination, finalexam, examination, test - a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or knowledge; "when the test was stolen the professor had to make a new set of , and extra credit. Students needed to earn aminimum passing numerical numericalexpressed in numbers, i.e. Arabic numerals of 0 to 9 inclusive.numerical nomenclaturea numerical code is used to indicate the words, or other alphabetical signals, intended. score usually 70% of the maximum possiblepoints available for each course requirement.Students completed three assignments, worth 20 points each.Information to assist students with preparing assignments was posted onthe Web-CT site. The first assignment, the four-year plan, involvedcompletion of the psychology department's advising booklet, inwhich the student planned courses to take in order to meet university,college, and department graduation Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. requirements for a psychology degree.The second assignment involved preparation of a one-page resume. Thefinal assignment was a career exploration assignment that involvedresearching a bachelor-level career and a graduate-level career inpsychology or related fieldsThe cumulative final exam consisted of 50 multiple-choice itemsincluding 35 items based on the lecture and reading questions. Answersto the lecture and reading questions were posted to the course WebCTsite as a final exam study guide.Students could optionally attend up to three extra credit lectures,presented by the upper-level undergraduate teaching assistants. Extracredit applied in the event a student failed the final exam or missedmore than 3 of the 15 required lectures.Course Evaluation Data. During the final week of class, studentscompleted a course evaluation on WebCT to provide the instructor withfeedback about various aspects of the course. WebCT-related itemsincluded 5-point Likert-scale ratings (1=very low through 5=very high)of the value of the course WebCT site and value of readings on the Website (a separate item assessed the value of textbook readings). Onanother item, students indicated whether their general Internet useincreased (i.e., a lot, somewhat, or stayed the same) as a result oftheir enrollment in Psychology 201. A final item assessed how frequentlystudents ever accessed the Internet (i.e., never, monthly, weekly, ordaily).Web-CTAccess Data. A WebCT tracking feature stores records (eachoccurrence) of when an individual student accessed the homepage and thevarious "content pages" on the WebCT site. We converted thistracking information into the number of times each student accessed thecourse homepage and the following content pages:1. Syllabus A headnote; a short note preceding the text of a reported case that briefly summarizes the rulings of the court on the points decided in the case.The syllabus appears before the text of the opinion. 2. Answers to Reading/Lecture Questions, which served as a finalexam study guide3. Schedule/Reading, which included lectures topics, assignmentsdue dates, and a link to Web-based reading assignments4. Announcements5. Required Assignment information (i.e., four year plan, resume,career exploration)6. Instructor and undergraduate teaching assistant biographies ande-mail address See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address .7. Guest Speaker information, which included biographical bi��o��graph��i��cal? also bi��o��graph��icadj.1. Containing, consisting of, or relating to the facts or events in a person's life.2. Of or relating to biography as a literary form. information for each of four guest speakers.8. Link to university resources, such as the campus newspaper,psychology department, student services center.9. Link to Psychology-related Web sites, such as ProfessionalOrganizations, Graduate School Information, Forensic Psychology forensic psychologyApplication of psychology to legal issues, often for the purpose of offering expert testimony in a courtroom. In civil and criminal cases, forensic psychologists may evaluate individuals to determine questions such as competency to stand trial, Links,On-line Writing HelpResultsDescriptive InformationThe mean number of hits per student to the course homepage on theWebCT site over the 15-week semester was 28.9 (SD=20.1) with a rangefrom 2 to 152. Table 1 shows the mean number of hits per students andrange of hits for each of the content pages. Table 1 lists the contentpages ordered from most to least hit. As shown in the table, theSchedule/Reading link received the highest mean hits per students.Relation Between Demographics The attributes of people in a particular geographic area. Used for marketing purposes, population, ethnic origins, religion, spoken language, income and age range are examples of demographic data. and Web Site AccessYear in school and university grade point average (GPA GPAabbr.grade point averageNoun 1. GPA - a measure of a student's academic achievement at a college or university; calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted ) did notsignificantly differentiate Web utilization in terms of mean homepagehits. However, gender was related to Web utilization. Table 2 shows agender comparison of average number of hits per student to the coursehomepage and content pages. Females accessed the course homepage moreoften than males, F(1,147)=4.20, [n.sup.2]=.03, p<.04. Of the contentpages, females more frequently than males accessed the Syllabus,F(1,147)=5.68, [n.sup.2]=.04. p<.02 and the Schedule/Readings,F(1,147)=6.53, [n.sup.2]=.04, p<.01. There were no gender differencesfor hits to the other content pages.Relations Between Course Performance and Web Site AccessWe compared Web site access between students who passed andstudents who failed the course on several performance measures: finalexam score, total assignments score (four year plan, resume, careerexplorations), extra credit, and participation points.Table 3 shows a comparison of Web site access across pages by finalgrade. Students who passed the course accessed the course homepage morefrequently than students who failed, but the difference was notstatistically significant. Of the content pages, students who passed,compared to students who failed, more frequently accessed Answers toReading and Lecture Questions, F(1,154) =5.71, [n.sup.2]=.04, p < .02and Schedule/Readings, F(1, 154) =3.93, [n.sup.2]=.02, p < .05. Therewere no significant differences between students who passed and studentswho failed on number of hits to the other content pages. Total hits tothe course homepage correlated significantly with all course performancemeasures except Extra Credit (r=.08, NS). Specifically, homepage hitscorrelated with Final Exam score(r=. 19, p<.02), Four-Year Plan score(r=.27,p<.001), Resume score (r=.27,p<. 001), Career Explorationscore (r=.19,p<.02), and Participation Points (r=.31. p<.001).Final exam score correlated significantly with hits to theSchedule/Readings content page (r=.23, p<.005) and Answers to Readingand Lecture Questions page (r=.36, p<.001). The latter page served asa final exam study guide. Similarly, required assignment gradescorrelated with hits to the Required Assignment content page, whichprovided instructions for completing the assignments: Four-Year Plan(r=.17, p<.03), Resume (r=.25, p<.002), and Career Exploration(r=.18, p<.03).Course Evaluation SurveyStudents completed a final course survey, using the WebCT surveytool, to evaluate the course material and their experience with the Website. On a five-point scale (1 = very low value through 5=very highvalue), they rated the course as moderately valuable (M=3.8, SD= 1.0).Most (86%) agreed that the department should continue to require thecourse in the major. Additionally, students rated the course Web site asvaluable (M=3.9, SD= 1.0). A sample of comments from the survey include:"... actually, the site is better than most I've used forother classes" and "... it has plenty of information on therefor the course." Students gave moderate ratings to the readingsposted on the Website (M=3.0, SD=.9) and rated the textbook (M=3.21, SD=1.1) significantly, but only slightly higher, t(150)=2.30,[n.sup.2]=.03, p<.02.Nearly 90% of students reported daily Internet use. As a result oftheir participation in the course, 27% of students reported that theirInternet use "increased somewhat" or "increased alot." As one student said, "I access the Web-CT site at leastonce a day, and I really like how it is set up. Everything is easy toget to and simple to follow."DiscussionWe examined variables associated with psychology student Web-CTaccess of professional development course material. Results indicatethat more frequent access to the Web-based course material wasconsistently related to higher course grades and performance on classassignments. A similar relationship has been found in other researchexamining Web site utilization (Wang & Newlin, 2000; McCollum Mc��Col��lum, Elmer 1879-1967.American biochemist and nutritionist who first classified vitamins, distinguishing between fat-soluble (A) vitamins and water-soluble (B) vitamins. .1997), although Web site usage and course performance were not relatedin other studies (Goolkasian et. al., 2003; Rosen & Petty, 1997).Equivocal findings might relate to the pedagogical ped��a��gog��ic? also ped��a��gog��i��caladj.1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of pedagogy.2. Characterized by pedantic formality: a haughty, pedagogic manner. construction of theWeb site and what it delivers to the student. Our Web site containedfairly extensive study guides to help prepare for graded projects, andthese aids might account for the observed relations between outcomes andusage. Course Web sites without this facilitative material might resultin lower student use and, thereby, demonstrate a much smallerassociation between Web access and course performance.Another critical aspect of course design vis-a-vis its Web site isthe extent to which students are required, explicitly or implicitly, toaccess the Web site on a regular basis. One might expect more uniformlyhigh use, and less variability, across students and, thus, an attenuated AttenuatedAlive but weakened; an attenuated microorganism can no longer produce disease.Mentioned in: Tuberculin Skin Testattenuatedhaving undergone a process of attenuation. relation. In our course, much of the reading material and assignmentinstructions were posted only on the Web site; however, this materialcould be printed out and shared with students who did not access the Website. In a study reported within McCollum (1997), students in thevirtual section of the course outperformed students in the classroomsection. However, the course instructor concluded that the onlinestudents had formed a strong network of peer-based study groups due totheir lack of direct contact with each other. Thus, factors extramural extramural/ex��tra��mu��ral/ (-mur��il) situated or occurring outside the wall of an organ or structure. extramuralsituated or occurring outside the wall of an organ or structure. to the classroom, and in this instance, to the Web site appeared tocontrol learning outcomes.An analysis of demographic variables indicated that female studentsmore frequently accessed the site than males. This finding is consistentwith previous research, which indicates that females learn moreinformation from Web screens than male (Zalaquett & Sullivan (1998).Consistent with the evaluation data reported by Couch (1997), Henly(2003), Lawson (2000), and Rosen & Petty (1997), students rated theuse of and ease of access to the course Web site highly. Nearly allstudents in the present study reported accessing the Internet daily,which suggests that course Web sites can serve as a practical, easilyavailable teaching tool.Unfortunately, some instructors avoid developing course Web siteddue to lack of computer training and time constraints In law, time constraints are placed on certain actions and filings in the interest of speedy justice, and additionally to prevent the evasion of the ends of justice by waiting until a matter is moot. that limit theirability to develop a course Web site (Vodanovich & Piotrowski 2001)or to manage student frustration with novel aspects of the technology(Carnevale, 2003). Instructor reluctance underscores the need forempirical research Noun 1. empirical research - an empirical search for knowledgeinquiry, research, enquiry - a search for knowledge; "their pottery deserves more research than it has received" to confirm that the time and energy investment can beworthwhile.We observed several advantages in developing Web-based supplementalmaterial. First, on-line posting of handouts, study guides, and otherresources saved money on photocopy costs. In addition, we did not needto prepare an extensive course packet before the start of the semester.We could easily revise course handouts and material throughout thesemester (cf. Couch 1997). The on-line grade book allowed students toview their individual grades at their convenience, and saved us frompreparing and posting grades in public places. Finally, the ability totrack student Website access allowed us to identify if an individualstudent was indeed accessing course readings and participating in thecourse.In the future, we may use tracking data to send progress reports ore-mails to students throughout the semester to alert individuals ifparticipation needs to improve and praise individuals if theirparticipation is impressive. Another possible improvement includes theinvolvement of psychology professionals to participate in guest speakerchats to supplement in-class guest speaker lectures (Bailey &Cotlar, 1994). On-line student-professional interactions may provide amore informal environment, and encourage students to ask questions theymay be uncomfortable asking in a large lecture hall lecture halln → sala de conferencias;(UNIV) → aulalecture halllecture n → amphith��atre m .Assessment and evaluation of student access to Web-based coursematerials provides an empirical basis for subsequent Web site revision.The present study demonstrates the value of analyzing Web utilization bystudents, especially as more courses in the psychology curriculumestablish Web sites to enhance and deliver course material.Table 1Mean, (Standard Deviation), and Range ofHits by WebCT Content Page Mean Hits Per Range ofContent Page Mean Students HitsSchedule/Reading 8.2 (6.5) 0-35Answers to reading/ lecture questions 4.9 (4.9) 0-31Syllabus 3.6 (3.4) 0-15Required assignment information 3.6 (3.0) 0-15Guest speaker information 2.8 (3.2) 0-17Links to psychology- related Web sites 2.8 (2.5) 0-12Announcements 2.0 (2.8) 0-18Instructor biographies 0.7 (l.0) 0-5Links to university resources 0.06 (.27) 0-4Table 2 Gender Comparison of Access to Web Site PagesContent Page Mean Mean Hits Hits Per Per Female Male Student StudentCourse homepage * 31.6 (22.0) 24.6 (16.4)Schedule/Reading ** 9.3 (6.8) 6.4 (5.8)Answers to reading/ lecture questions 5.0 (4.2) 4.7 (4.3)Syllabus * 4.1 (3.6) 2.8 (2.9)Required assignment information 3.6 (2.9) 3.4 (3.1)Guest speaker information 2.5 (2.8) 3.2 (3.7)Links to psychology- related Web sites 2.8 (2.6) 2.6 (2.4)Announcements 2.3 (3.1) 1.5 (2.0)Instructor biographies 0.7 (1.0) 0.8 (1.1)Links to university resources 0.07 (0.4) .04 (.38)Note: Standard deviation in parentheses* p < .05** p < .01TTable 3Mean Hits Per Student & Final Course GradePage Passed Failed (N=133) (N=21)Course homepage 30.0 (20.1) 22.3 (12.8)Schedule/Reading * 8.6 (6.6) 5.6 (5.3)Answers to reading/lecture questions * 5.2 (4.3) 2.9 (2.8)Syllabus 3.7 (3.5) 2.9 (2.4)Required assignment information 3.5 (3.0) 3.8 (3.1)Guest speaker information 2.9 (3.3) 1.9 (2.3)Links to psychology-related Web sites 2.7 (2.5) 2.8 (2.6)Announcements 2.1 (2.9) 1.2 (l.4)Links to university resources .06 (.40) .05 (.22)Instructor biographies .71 (1.03) .57 (.93)Note: Standard deviation in parentheses* p <.05** p <.01ReferencesAberson. 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The oldest manuscripts, those found in Egyptian tombs, were written on papyrus; the earliest dates from c.3500 B.C. . Dara Acord and Lori Murrayassisted with the recording and coding of WebCT tracking logs frompreliminary versions of the Web site.Michelle Heffner and Stanley Stanley,town (1991 pop. 1,557), capital of the Falkland Islands, S Atlantic Ocean, on East Falkland island. It is the main port and trading center of the islands. The name is sometimes written as Port Stanley. H. Cohen, West Virginia University West Virginia University,mainly at Morgantown; coeducational; land-grant and state supported; est. and opened 1867 as an agricultural college, renamed 1868. ,Department of Psychology, 1220 Life Sciences Building, Morgantown, WV26506-6040.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed toStanley H. Cohen at stanley.cohen@mail.wvu.edu.