The effectiveness of animations in an undergraduate operating systems course

Abstract

This project studied the instructional effectiveness of using animations to teach thirty-two learning objectives in an undergraduate operating systems course. The animations were created using Macromedia Flash™ and were employed as primary pedagogical tools during classroom instruction. Furthermore, a website for each animation was constructed to allow student accessibility to the animations outside the classroom. Statistical analysis using a paired t-test indicated that inclusion of animations in an undergraduate operating systems course yielded significant overall student achievement gains as measured by pretest and posttest scores. The inclusion of animations also was determined to be effective for approximately one-half of the thirty-two learning objectives when considered individually.