Student Preference of Modules in Virtual Introduction to Animal Sciences Course

NACTA Journal, Jun 2006 by Latour, Mickey A

Abstract

Virtual Introduction to Animal Sciences 101 was designed to teach the fundamentals of animal agriculture through a series of modules (n=20). There are two different formats for the course modules, modules seven and 20 were writing assignments with broad but specific objectives to be completed by the interviewee, an expert in the field selected by the student and following the interview, must be written up by the student for a grade. The remaining 18 modules were arranged with specified objectives and composed of reading materials, interactive multimedia pages, and online quizzes. Student surveys showed these written assignments were beneficial and significantly (P

Introduction

In terms of designing a distance learning course, the range of possibilities on how to deliver that material is broad. Today, instructors can incorporate a wide variety of media, i.e., PowerPoint presentations, email, on-line chats, bulletin boards, and interactive QuickTime clips are tools used to teach online courses. In some cases, these distance learning courses have been assembled such that individuals can participate in a degree program while maintaining current obligations. Thus are sought by mature students wanting to further their education. The momentum driving these distance learning courses are those mature students seeking to obtain knowledge or a degree, while pursuing a fulltime career and this format has become a great way for many individuals to take college courses (Latour and Collodi, 2003). Distance learning is very popular among lifelong learners, particularly because it allows them the flexibility to pursue their present commitments while learning up-to-date information. Braido et al. (2005) also noted that continuing medical education programs are very popular among older and mature students.

Through the use of Internet multimedia combined with textbook readings and some face-to-face contact, our group discovered students do equally as well on matched exams when compared to an identical course on-campus (Day et al., 2005). Because the range of possibilities (what type of multimedia platform to use) are vast, instructors may use any combination to teach class; that is, some instructors teaching at a distance may only use one type of format, i.e., teleconferencing versus another instructor using different combinations of multimedia platforms (QuickTime video clips, PowerPoint, text readings, etc.) to teach class. The present study utilized different types of media. The focus of this study was to identify student preference of course modules and what factors contribute to that satisfaction in Virtual Introduction to Animal Sciences (VANSC).

Methods

Over the past five years, VANSC has served approximately 30-40 students each Fall and Spring semester. The course is composed of 20-learning modules (Table 1) with 18 modules being interactive using QuickTime clips, PowerPoint presentations, rollover identification of items and interactive point/click task utilizing WebCT (WebCT, 2003). Even though the 18 modules are different in terms of content, the modules represent a mixture of materials; that is, students must work through some specific written objectives, which in turn are directly linked back to the assigned reading within the textbook, so there is approximately one to two hours of pure reading material for each module. In addition, there are video clips as well as PowerPoint presentations (students can click on QuickTime player and/or Real player and visualize segments, approximately four per module and takes 30-minutes per segment) with assigned written objectives. Student would be expected to take hand written notes from these video clips. At the end of each module (not modules 7 and 20), students are given an interactive quiz, which is graded and if they miss an item they are redirected back to the area where the problem occurred. Unlike the other modules, modules 7 and 20 are writing assignments and designed for students to utilize the basic concepts learned in the other modules and conduct interviews within his or her area of interest. In order to give the student some direction, an example paper is given online, so students can read and understand the level of detail expected in the paper. In addition, students are expected to establish a contact person (sometimes this is directly arranged by the professor if they are unable to secure a person), visit with them either verbally or in person, and write up the interview. Students do have the option to ask the professor to read the paper before turning it in, so they can receive constructive feedback and polish it before the deadline. Topics for the writing assignments, modules 7 and 20 are shown in Table 2. Regardless of module assignment, they were design through beta testing to take similar effort by the student.

At semesters end, students were asked to complete a rank the course modules. More specifically, students were asked to rank (1-20 from highest to lowest), the course modules as it related to preference and workload (two separate columns). By using the Wilcoxon signed rank test, direct comparisons were made between modules using the students as replicates. Following the rankings, students were given an opportunity to express his or her reason why one module was favored over another as well as comment on the overall workload associated with course modules (Stayrook, 1973). Following a summary of findings, students were asked to agree on which statements best described the findings of preference and workload. Statistical analysis for the nonparametric parameters were performed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test of SAS® (2003) and all statistical differences were reported at P