Computer-aided evaluation of television instruction in a tertiary-level introductory statistics course

[摘要] This study investigated the effectiveness of televised lectures inteaching an introductory statistics course to first year commerce undergraduates,Certain constraints imposed themselves on this introductorycourse which dictated many of the teaching conditions. Some ofthese conditions were that the lecture situation formed the majorteaching component in the course and that these lectures were administeredto large numbers of students (groups of between 70 and 120).The primary aim of the investigation was to determine whether ornot the effectiveness of these lectures (when televised) could beassessed. A secondary aim was to determine whether or not (once theeffectiveness of the lectures had been assessed) the areas in the lectureswhich had been identified as ineffective, could be analysed andchanged, so as to become effective.In order to conduct this investigation the method employed demandedthat three preliminary areas be fully expounded. The first was thatthe meaning of 'instructional effectiveness' be fully defined in termsof the previling conditions. In order to achieve this a criterionreferenced approach to instruction was adapted to the television lectures.Secondly, the 'type' of television lecture had to be disclosed.The televised lectures were traditional in that they were similar todie 'live' lectures except for a few novel innovations. The study didnot however set out to compare the effectiveness of the 'live and'T.V,1 instruction - a point which is fully discussed in the second andsixth chapters, The third preliminary area was the means employed tocollect the data which was needed for the evaluation of the lectures.A recently devoWpcd educational computer system was used for thispurpose and a full description of this novel system is given in thisstudy.The experimentation was based on two important premises. First,the evaluative means which were used to assess the lectures had to bevalid. In other words they had to measure what they were supposed toiii.measure. The validation procedure, adopted is therefore fully discussed.Secondly the variables had to be Identified and controlledwhen improvements were attempted so as to ensure that the only variablewhich was allowed to change was the instruction. This procedureis always a difficult one and is fully discussed in chapter six andchapter eight.The results of this investigation indicated that it was bothpossible to assess and improve the effectiveness of a televised lecturewithin the prevailing conditions. However this investigation isseen only as a preliminary study into an area which requires scientificallybased analyses and conclusions in order to achieve both effectiveand efficient instruction in this teaching area. Therefore thereis much which this study did not do and several criticisms are made inthe final chapter.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand