Universities in the U.S. typically offer to teach introductory engineering courses in large classes to tackle the increase in undergraduate engineering enrolment and to save on cost of teaching. Previous studies done on traditionally taught large classes have shown the negative effects it has on students and faculty. Many institutions use online…

Two sections of an introductory microbiology course were taught by one instructor. One was taught through a hybrid format and the other through a traditional format. Students were randomly assigned to the two sections. Both sections were provided with identical lecture materials, in-class worksheets, in-class assessments, and extra credit…

Recent studies conclude that teachers are important for student learning but it remains uncertain what actually determines effective teaching. This study directly peers into the black box of educational production by investigating the relationship between lecture style teaching and student achievement. Based on matched student-teacher data for the…

This research shows that active learning is not universally effective and, in fact, may inhibit learning for certain types of students. The results of this study show that as increased levels of active learning are utilized, student test scores decrease for those with a high grade point average. In contrast, test scores increase as active learning…

Public universities are currently facing a challenge in determining how to deliver quality instruction in the face of severe fiscal constraints. With recent technological advances, courses streamed over the Internet (i.e., lecture capture) are now becoming common. However, little research has been published that specifically examines student…

This study compared Web-based and lecture-based Gerontology and Psychology of Aging courses in terms of student performance, demographic and academic characteristics of students enrolled in the courses, and extent to which these characteristics differentially predicted outcomes of learning in the two course types. Participants for this study were…

The first objective of this research was to compare the demographic and academic profiles of introductory sociology students who completed Web-based courses (n = 62) to those who completed traditional lecture-based courses (n = 77). The second objective was to determine the extent to which demographic variables (age, gender, and race), academic…

We compare students in online and lecture sections of a business statistics class taught simultaneously by the same instructor using the same content, assignments, and exams in the fall of 2001. Student data are based on class grades, registration records, and two surveys. The surveys asked for information on preparedness, reasons for section…

The effects of student instructional preference on performance in an engineering course offered both by Personalized Instruction (PSI) and lecture/discussion methods were explored in a study of 113 university sophomores and juniors. In lieu of random assignment to instruction mode, this study employed self-selection, the most common situation in…

A study was conducted to determine whether conventional instruction and mastery-based auto-tutorial instruction interacted with learning characteristics that were found to be instruction-interactive in previous research. Conventional instruction consisted of lecture with discussion and laboratory periods. The mastery-based auto-tutorial…