Various Learning Environments and Their Impact on Student Performance. Part I

This paper presents a comparison of student performances in the traditional (chalkboard) setting versus that in a traditional setting augmented with stand-alone lectures developed in PowerPoint and interaction provided through WebCT, a course-content delivery software that provides tools to facilitate the production of such online materials as quizzes, bulletin boards, calendars, etc. The study was conducted over a period of six semesters of traditional and five semesters of augmented classes with approximately sixty-five students per semester. The data gathered in the course of this study shows that students in the augmented format outperformed those students in the traditional setting such that the highest number of students receiving a certain grade shifted from “C” in the traditional setting to “A” in the augmented setting, and the mean shifted from an average GPA of 2.39 to an average GPA of 2.65 for only students with passing grades and 1.23 to 1.43 for overall student grades. Three of the five augmented-class performances showed the highest number of students receiving an “A” grade, whereas in the traditional setting the highest number of students consistently received a grade of “C” or “D.”