The general purpose of this project was to enhance the retention of social studies curriculum via internet technology. Specifically, this project involved a webquest about the three branches of government.

The purpose of this project was to create a website that would assist students in the process of submitting the correct assignments with a minimal amount of frustration for all parties concerned: teachers, administrators, parents, and students.

This study compared student satisfaction and academic performance in online and face-to-face classes. 105 ITT Technical Institute students who were simultaneously enrolled in one online course and two on-campus courses were surveyed and interviewed. Factors examined included student to instructor communication, student to student interaction, content selection for online courses and course management for online courses. Sixty-four percent of the students did not pass their online courses and expressed dissatisfaction with the learning process. Course components and processes that could be improved were identified.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The publication of the Report of the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) in 1996, the White Paper on Higher Education (1997) and the Size and Shape Report (2000) has profoundly changed the landscape of Higher Education in South Africa. Institutions of Higher Education have to re-think, among others, their teaching and learning strategies including the integration and use of technology. Although the use of technology in higher education is still in the early stages, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is growing rapidly. The University of Stellenbosch started to integrate the Internet in their teaching in 1998. Research was undertaken to find a suitable on-line course management system and Web Course Tools (WebCT) was chosen for this purpose. Since it was implemented, the use of WebCT has grown exponentially, although in most cases only as an add-on to classroom lectures. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Mental Health Disorders in Primary Care programme was the first programme developed as a full distance education course, delivered completely by means of WebCT and making use of the team approach to programme development. This programme was therefore chosen as the case study for this research. The purpose of this study is to apply 24 internationally developed benchmarks for quality on-line distance education to the WebCT component of the WHO programme in order to determine the applicability of these benchmarks for World Wide Web (WWW) programmes at the University of Stellenbosch. The research strategy for this study is a qualitative case study. Qualitative data was obtained by conducting semi-structured interviews with the individuals involved in the design, development and implementation of the WHO course. The study concludes that the 24 benchmarks cannot be applied to the current University of Stellenbosch context. The systems at the US will either have to be adapted, or established to meet the requirements of the international benchmarks. Another option for the US could be to develop their own benchmarks, taking international guidelines into account. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die publikasie van die Nasionale Kommissie vir Hoër Onderwys se verslag in 1996, die Witskrif vir Hoër Onderwys 1997 en die onlangse "Size and Shape" Verslag, het die scenario vir Hoër Onderwys in Suid-Afrika onherroeplik verander. Hoër Onderwys instellings is besig om, onder andere, die strategieë wat leer en onderrig bevorder, in heroorweging te neem en dit sluit die integrasie of gebruik van tegnologie as een van die belangrikste punte in. Alhoewel die gebruik van tegnologie in Suid-Afrika nog in 'n beginstadium is, groei die gebruik hiervan ongekend. Die Universiteit van Stellenbosch het sedert 1998 begin om die Internet in leer en onderrig te benut. Navorsing is gedoen oor 'n geskikte elektroniese kursusbestuurstelsel en die keuse het op "Web Course Tools (WebCT)" geval. Sedert die implementering hiervan het die gebruik eksponensiële groei beleef. In die meeste gevalle word WebCT bykomend tot klaskameronderrig gebruik. Die "World Health Organisation (WHO) Mental Health Disorders in Primary Care" programme was een van die eerste, volledige afstandsonderwysprogramme wat van die spanbenadering tot programontwikkeling gebruik gemaak het. Die program is daarom ook as gevallestudie vir hierdie navorsing gekies. Die doel van hierdie navorsing is om 24 internasionale kriteria vir kwaliteit Internet afstandsonderrig, toe te pas op die WebCT komponent van die bogenoemde WHO kursus, ten einde te bepaal of die kriteria toepaslik is vir Internetkursusse binne die Universiteit van Stellenbosch konteks. Die navorsingstrategie wat aangewend is om die doel van hierdie navorsing te bereik, is 'n kwalitatiewe gevallestudie. Kwalitatiewe data is verkry deur semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met die persone te voer wat betrokke was by die ontwerp, ontwikkeling en implementering van die WHO program. Die afleidings wat deur hierdie studie gemaak word, is dat die 24 kriteria nie toepaslik is vir die huidige Universiteit van Stellenbosch konteks nie. Die US sal dus die huidige sisteme moet verander of sisteme vestig ten einde aan internasionale standaarde te voldoen. 'n Ander opsie sou wees om 'n eie stel kriteria, gebaseer op die internasionale kriteria, te ontwikkel.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

The current period of rapid technological change, particularly in the area of mediated communication, has combined with new philosophies of education and market forces to bring upheaval to the realm of higher education. Technical capabilities exceed our knowledge of whether expenditures on hardware and software lead to corresponding gains in student learning. Educators do not yet possess sophisticated assessments of what we may be gaining or losing as we widen the scope of distributed learning. The purpose of this study was not to draw sweeping conclusions with respect to the costs or benefits of technology in education. The researcher focused on a single issue involved in educational quality: assessing the ability of a student to complete a course. Previous research in this area indicates that attrition rates are often higher in distributed learning environments. Educators and students may benefit from a reliable instrument to identify those students who may encounter difficulty in these learning situations. This study is aligned with research focused on the individual engaged in seeking information, assisted or hindered by the capabilities of the computer information systems that create and provide access to information. Specifically, the study focused on the indicators of completion for students enrolled in video conferencing and Web-based courses. In the final version, the Distributed Learning Survey encompassed thirteen indicators of completion. The results of this study of 396 students indicated that the Distributed Learning Survey represented a reliable and valid instrument for identifying at-risk students in video conferencing and Web-based courses where the student population is similar to the study participants. Educational level, GPA, credit hours taken in the semester, study environment, motivation, computer confidence, and the number of previous distributed learning courses accounted for most of the predictive power in the discriminant function based on student scores from the survey.

This study applied components of Csikszentmhalyi’s flow theory to the Web-based Training (WBT) environment. Specifically considered were how the equivalence of a learner’s perceived challenges and skills for an activity can effectively predict the emergence of flow in the WBT environment. Also considered was the ability of flow dimensions — defined in flow theory — to predict and model the occurrence of flow during WBT activities. Over a period of about one hour, students (n=43) from a southwestern US university engaged in WBT learning activities pertaining to on-line coursework or self-study. A special Web-based software installed on the students’ computers sporadically reminded them to complete a series of on-line questionnaires which collected data on their flow experience, learning activities, and flow dimensions. The data collection method employed by this study is effectively an electronic, Web-enabled version of, and functionally equivalent to, the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) used in other flow studies. This study employed questionnaires used in prior flow studies to collect data regarding respondents’ flow experiences and flow dimensions, and developed an on-line instrument to collect data on students’ learning experiences based on instructional events found in computer-based lessons from Gagné. Significant findings (p<.05) from this study suggest that, in the WBT environment studied, as the relative level of challenge and skill of a learning activity increases, so does the level of flow experienced by the individual. This study also found that flow dimensions are good predictors of flow experience. The results of this study should have important implications for WBT users and instructional designers. Since flow is a positive experience that most individuals wish to repeat, understanding how to facilitate the occurrence of flow, from both the WBT user’s and instructional designer’s perspective, is likely to be beneficial to the rapidly emerging field of WBT.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of web-based instruction (WBI) on cognitive and psychomotor learning. The subjects of the study received two types of instructional methods, WBI (experimental group) and traditional classroom instruction (control group). Each group received 30 minutes of instruction on "Soldering a Circuit Board." The researcher chose this content subject because it involved both cognitive and psychomotor objectives, which suited the purpose of this study. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference between the two methods of instruction, and also that there would be no significant interaction effects between methods of instruction and gender. Forty-six subjects from a population of students enrolled in summer classes offered by the Applied Technology, Training and Development (ATTD) program at the University of North Texas voluntarily participated in this study. Random assignment of subjects was applied in this study. A subject matter expert delivered the content for both the experimental and control groups. To measure cognitive variable, a 10 item, multiple-choice test was administered immediately after instruction. To measure the psychomotor variable, a 15-item checklist was utilized by trained judges to evaluate learners’ performances while soldering. The 2 x 2 factorial model with interaction was used in this study. The analysis was run for each of the dependent variables, cognitive and psychomotor learning. Although there was not a statistically significant difference in the main effects of method of instruction or interaction effects between method and gender, the results imply that students in the traditional-classroom instruction group performed better than those in the WBI group in psychomotor learning. Perhaps, this trend would be statistically significant if the sample size were larger. This study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of WBI in delivering cognitive and psychomotor objectives. The outcome of this study supports the need for more research on the effects of WBI on learning domains.