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| Wednesday, 20 July 2005: 10:00 AM-11:00 AM | |||
| Nob Hill A-B (San Francisco Marriott) | |||
| A-8: Taking The Plunge: Measuring Outcomes and Deciding What To Do | |||
| Detailed Description: | This presentation will describe the results of an experimental study comparing sections using WebCT and traditional sections without technology on instructional and economic outcomes. These results will be used to facilitate a discussion about how faculty and administrators use outcome data to make decisions about whether to take the plunge in investing in technology in large-enrollment courses. | ||
| Presentation Format: | Paper | ||
| Topic: | Measuring outcomes: Student achievement and course success | ||
| Target Audience: | Academic Technology Directors, Faculty and Other Instructors, Senior Administrators | ||
| Appropriate Audience Level: | Beginning or new users of WebCT, Experienced WebCT users | ||
| Abstract Text: | This presentation provides details of an experiment that systematically examined the instructional and economic outcomes of the use of technology in teaching a large-enrollment basic communication course. There were 2,062 participants and the experiment was conducted over a three-year period (6 semesters). Each semester, eight sections of the course were offered with WebCT in the web-integrated format (experimental group) and eight sections were offered in the traditional format (control group). The control group met face-to-face either MWF for 50 minutes each or TR for 75 minutes each. Students were measured at two times during the semester. Time 1 was the beginning of the semester and Time 2 was at the end of the semester. Activity-based costs included calculations for variable, semi-fixed, and fixed costs. The calculation for cost-benefit ratios was: [(Benefit of treatment)/(cost of treatment)]/[(benefit of control)/(cost of control)], or, equivalently: [(benefit ratio)/(cost ratio)]. There were no significant differences between speech grades or exam grades for students in the web-integrated and traditional sections of the course. Satisfaction, attitudes about the course, and teaching evaluations were lower in the web-integrated course than in the traditional sections of the course. The costs of the course were significantly lower in the web-integrated sections of the course than in the traditional delivery of the course. The cost-benefit ratio analysis suggested an advantage for the web-integrated sections but these were dominated by the cost-savings associated with the technology treatment. These results illustrate a research design that controls for confounding variables and contributes to the literature on the use of WebCT in a large-enrollment course. This leads to the development of a decision-making model using Quality of Instruction, Student Satisfaction, and Costs as predictors of the adoption of technology in large-enrollment courses. | ||
| Session Leader: | Pamela Jean Benoit University of Missouri | ||
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