Students In Traditional Courses Research Articles

INITIAL ATTITUDES TOWARD STATISTICS ARE BETTER IN TRADITIONAL COMPARED TO ONLINE COURSES, AT LEAST UNTIL COVID-19

We examined students’ initial and concluding attitudes toward statistics based on course delivery methods. Students enrolled in either traditional or online undergraduate statistics courses (N = 196) completed the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics-36. At the beginning of the semester, students in traditional courses felt better about the course and believed it would be easier, compared to students taking statistics online. Attitude differences, however, were mitigated as traditional courses were forced online by the pandemic, and distinct attitudinal differences were not observed at the semester’s end. With limited offerings and restrictions on the delivery of traditional courses in the COVID-19 era, statistics educators should be cognizant of student attitudes, their potential for change, and how to best influence positive attitude shifts for different instructional formats.

Comparison of Student's retention of core concepts in Traditional, Hybrid and Writing-Intensive Allied Health Microbiology and Infection Control Courses


 
 
 The purpose of this study was to probe best course modality for the student population of a community college taking the Microbiology and Infection Control Courses. Students’ retention of knowledge base was compared in Traditional, Hybrid and Writing-Intensive Microbiology and Infectious Disease Control courses. Students' final grades achieved in the course and withdrawal rates were used to evaluate the comprehension of knowledge and students' overall performance. Additionally, students’ scores for a specific set of twenty five questions in the final lecture exam were utilized as part of the embedded assessment for retention of knowledge base, and general education proficiencies were also compared. All courses used in this study were taught by the same instructor, the difference being the lecture delivery mode. Students in all courses were provided with the same lecture notes via Blackboard. For the Traditional and Writing-Intensive (WI) courses, there were weekly in-class lectures with duration of three hours each; however, there were no in-class lectures for Hybrid courses and face to face component was three hour/week Lab session. WI students were required to do formal and informal writing assignments based on the core topics, though Lab components were exactly same for students in all courses modalities in this study. Data analysis revealed that students in Traditional courses performed much better in most aspects measured in this study, as compared to students in Hybrid and Writing-Intensive courses. Withdrawal rates were same in Hybrid and WI courses, but higher than Traditional courses. The number of students who received an overall F grade was highest in the WI courses. In terms of correct responses to embedded assessment questions, the difference was significantly higher for students in WI courses as compared to Traditional.
 
 

Student Performance in Online and Traditional Sections of an Undergraduate Management Course

Few previous studies comparing online and traditional courses have focused on undergraduate management courses. Our results complement previous analyses finding that, when we control for factors such as class, major, and GPA, students in online courses do as well in objective measures of performance, but not better than students in traditional courses. We also found that in the online sections, females performed at least as well as males. We discuss these results in relation to some changes in online education and the persistent perception by some that online education is somewhat problematic because students need more discipline in online courses.

The Undergraduate Genomics Research Initiative

Modern scientific advances have transformed life sciences research but have had little influence on undergraduate training, leaving an unprecedented gap between teaching and research. Consequently, a consensus is building around the need to reform undergraduate life sciences education [1–3]. Students need to embrace scientific discovery directly, make connections across an otherwise diverse curriculum, learn to manage and interpret today's vast amounts of data, practice using computers to control instrumentation and analyze experiments, and greatly improve quantitative reasoning. Moreover, they need to appreciate that modern life sciences research is increasingly carried out by interdisciplinary teams of scientists—yet teamwork is alien to the highly competitive undergraduate life sciences culture. Indeed, a recent poll by the Science Advisory Board, an international “electronic community” of scientists and physicians, determined that “poor interpersonal skills are hampering the careers of young researchers;” they have difficulty working in teams [4]. Research experience is widely recognized as an ideal way to achieve many of these reforms simultaneously while giving students the chance to experience the emotions, challenges, and satisfactions inherent in doing research. Providing research experience to all life sciences students, however, presents a seemingly intractable scaling problem. Carefully guided by a faculty member, graduate student, or post-doc, the typical undergraduate research project is labor intensive—requiring hypotheses-driven experiments, intense data evaluation, and, often, many different techniques. Although excellent training occurs, most faculty members can productively mentor only one or few undergraduates in this kind of research. Even a major research university such as the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) can accommodate only about 20% of qualified students in this way. The inherent blend of wet laboratory experience and in silico experimentation of genomics research makes it an ideal model to illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of life sciences research today. Clearly, a new approach to undergraduate research is required, one that reflects modern life sciences research yet enables large numbers of students to participate. We sought to address this problem by developing a microbial genome sequencing project specifically for undergraduates, The Undergraduate Genomics Research Initiative, UGRI [5]. The UGRI addresses the problems of scope and scale in two ways. First, to serve as a hub for this collaborative research network, we created a new interdisciplinary research course, LS187, “Principles and Practices of Genomics Research,” that blends topics in molecular biology, microbiology, evolution, bacterial physiology, genomics, physics, and bioinformatics in the sequencing and analysis of a microbial genome. Second, we dissolved the traditional boundary between coursework and research by enabling large numbers of students in traditional courses to directly contribute individual research effort to the LS187 hub course, in turn receiving raw data for their own analysis and report. Thousands of students annually participate in this collaborative research project. Here we describe the structure and outcomes of the first three years of the UGRI, focusing on the course, LS187. We also discuss how other institutions can adapt this collaborative research approach.

A statistical analysis of student performance in online computer science courses

During the past few years the number of courses offered online has greatly increased as technology has made delivery of such courses feasible. This paper discusses the experiences of the authors in teaching online courses for upper-division computer science students and reports results of a study comparing success of students in online courses to students in traditional courses.

Education at the Crossroads

The Internet offers colleges and universities new opportunities to act on a potential watershed—online learning. Online learning offers students and institutions great flexibility, and thus, online courses are increasing in number and scope. This article taps the perspectives of preservice teachers enrolled at an urban university. The majority of students in traditional courses favor online courses but are less likely to enroll in them. Implications are that instructors must address student perceptions that online courses are not as effective in preparing them to teach. The majority of students taking online courses find that they meet their academic needs and improve their technological skills.

Teaching Statistics

This article compares grades earned by incoming MSW students in traditional classroom-based statistics courses and those taught using software-based content and no regular classes. Traditional-learning students earned high grades overall, regardless of prior undergraduate grade point average (GPA). Students in the electronic-learning course with high GPAs performed as well as students in the regular course. However, electronic-learning students with low GPAs earned lower course grades than students with high GPAs who took the same course and students in the traditional course, regardless of their GPA. Findings suggest students can learn statistics successfully in a programmed instruction/distance education course; however, some might need additional assistance or do better in a traditional format.

The University of Utah's Immersion/Multiliteracy Program: An Example of an Area Studies Approach to the Design of First‐year College Foreign Language Instruction

The University of Utah's Immersion/Multiliteracy (IM/ML) Program is an outgrowth of the post‐WWII movement towards an extension of the area studies model to modern foreign language study. Where the IM/ML program has sought to innovate is in the creation of a first‐year language course based on the area studies model. Using a methodology based on the Canadian immersion approach, the IM/ML Program has set as its goal multiliteracy, i.e, the pursuit of intellectually challenging and culturally broadening activities in more than one language. This article describes the pilot IM/ML Program in Spanish in which first‐year language students used Spanish‐language newspapers and culture/civilizations texts to study the history, geography and current affairs of Latin America. Results of the pilot program indicate 1) that IM/ML students are for the most part keeping up with students in traditional courses with respect to skill development, and 2) that the IM/ML Program holds promise for enhancing the contribution of introductory foreign language study to students' liberal education.

The effects of new science curricula on student performance

AbstractThis study summarizes the results of a quantitative synthesis of the retrievable primary research dealing with the effects of new science curricula on student performance. This study synthesizes the results of 105 experimental studies involving more than 45,000 students and utilizes the quantitative synthesis perspective to research integration known as meta‐analysis (Glass, 1976). A total of 27 different new science curricula involving one or more measures of student performance are included in this meta‐analysis. Data were collected for 18 a priori selected student performance measures. The results of this meta‐analysis reveal definite positive patterns of student performance in new science curricula. Across all new science curricula analyzed, students exposed to new science curricula performed better than students in traditional courses in general achievement, analytic skills, process skills, and related skills (reading, mathematics, social studies and communication), as well as developing a more positive attitude toward science. On a composite basis, the average student in new science curricula exceeded the performance of 63% of the students in traditional science courses.

Teaching physicists’ thinking skills in the laboratory

We describe a prototype introductory physics laboratory designed to teach students some general intellectual skills widely useful in scientific work. These skills include both basic skills (such as estimating quantities, determining errors, or applying useful measuring techniques) and higher-level skills (such as effectively describing experiments and flexibly adapting the resulting knowledge to different conditions). The teaching methods emphasize the utility of organizing information in hierarchical and goal-directed fashion. Furthermore, they strive to use an optimum combination of instructional means (’’minilabs,’’ more major ’’group labs,’’ and integrated assessment devices) to achieve the desired ends. A careful evaluation showed (i) that the prototype course is indeed quite successful in teaching the desired general intellectual skills, and (ii) that these skills are ordinarily not acquired by students in traditional courses. Students’ attitudes toward the prototype course are also appreciably more positive.