Library Skills Instruction: A Comparison of Students in a Web-based Course evrsus a Traditional Instruction Course

L. Alexander

Excerpt

… various measures of demographics and satisfaction levels showed interesting significent differences between the traditional and web groups… for the other seven [of 10] background variables, almost all indicated significant differences between the two groups at … The web students were very happy with their choice of course format and indicated comfort and benefit from it and the activities. They were also very comfortable with the technology format and the electronic databases they used. These facts were revealed by t-test comparisons for the course ratings, where significant differences (p<.05 and p<.01) between the two groups did exist on four of the course rating variables. These variables related to benefit of course, comfort level, continuation of the LME 101 requirement, and credit motivating students to learn… With regard to interaction variables, differences of means tests were performed on the eight satisfaction variables after each instructional method was further subdivided according to the three control variables–residence, year of high school graduation, and age. Among non-dorm residents web-based instruction was rated significantly higher on four of the variables. They related to benefit, comfort, course continuatioin, and academic credit… By controlling for year of high school graduation, t-test comparisons for the two groups revealed those who had graduated before 1998 rated the web course significently higher on the same four areas: benefit, comfort, course continuation, and academic credit. For the age variable, older students gave significantly higher ratings for the web course on the same four evaluation items. These parallel findings indicate that older, non-dorm, non-traditional students benefit most from web-based instruction.

About the Study

Finding	Significant Difference – Better Results with Technology
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