A Systematic Evaluation of Learning Objects for Secondary School Students

Empirical research evaluating the effectiveness of learning objects is noticeably absent. No formal research has been done on the use of learning objects in secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of learning objects by high school students. The evaluation metric used to assess benefits and quality of learning objects was theoretically sound, reliable, and partially validated. Overall, two-thirds of the students stated they benefitted from using learning objects. Students benefitted more if they were comfortable with computers, the learning object had a well organized layout, the instructions were clear, and the theme was fun or motivating. Students appreciated the motivational, interactive, visual qualities of the learning objects most. Computer comfort was significantly correlated with learning object quality and benefit. Younger students appeared to have less positive experiences than their older counterparts. There were no gender differences in perceived benefit or quality of learning objects, with one exception. Females emphasized the quality of help features significantly more than males.