Meta-analysis of effectiveness of technology use in undergraduate engineering education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to synthesize recent quantitative research on the effects of teaching and learning with technology on student outcomes in undergraduate engineering education. An extensive search of 26 engineering education journals and 10 electronic databases included a review of 21,353 articles and yielded 45 studies that met all the search criteria. Representing over 11,700 students, these studies reported 123 outcomes for which effect sizes were calculated. Although empirical evidence in the engineering education literature is very limited as indicated by the small number of studies qualifying for this meta-analysis, the combined effect size indicates that technology has a moderate, positive impact on cognitive student outcomes. The combined weighted effect size across all outcomes is 0.433 with a standard error of 0.067 and a 95% confidence interval from 0.302 to 0.564. No characteristics of the technology, methodology or instruction were found to have a significant impact on the overall effect size, although this may be partially due to a lack of sufficient detail in the primary study reports. This study represents a significant contribution to engineering education by synthesizing quantitative reports on the effect of educational technology on student outcomes.