How Might Classroom Time Be Used Given WWW‐Based Lectures?

Abstract

AbstractThis paper investigates how traditional lecture time might be used given the availability of effective web‐based courseware for delivering materials typically presented in the classroom. After providing an overview of web‐based educational materials, the effectiveness of two teaching approaches is compared using a product design lecture on visual prototyping. One group of students prepared for class using web‐based materials and then received a lecture‐style second coverage of the topic in class (web+class lecture). The other group of students prepared for class using the same web‐based materials and then worked with the faculty, applying only a small portion of the subject matter, on illustrative examples (web+limited experience). The two groups then completed an assignment based on the subject matter. The average grade performance of the web+limited experience group was 10.8% higher than for the web+class lecture group. An achieved significance level of 0.001 provides very strong evidence to reject the hypothesis that the two groups performed equally. Analysis of how the two student groups used the web‐lecture resource showed that the form of class instruction had a strong influence on student motivation for independent study. The average time spent in web‐based preparation by the web+limited experience group was 1.6 times greater than the average preparation time for the web+class lecture group. Sixty percent of the web+class lecture group prepared less than the least prepared student in the web+limited experience group. These findings suggest that, if codified materials are primarily delivered using a medium such as the WWW, traditional classroom time might be liberated for potentially higher value‐added activities such as mentoring and experiential activities.