Evaluating a Web Lecture Intervention in a Human–Computer Interaction Course

Research using Web lectures to enhance the classroom learning experience in an introductory human-computer interaction course is presented. By using Web lectures to present lecture material before class, more in-class time can be spent engaging students with hands-on learning activities-using class time for more learning by doing, less learning by listening. A quasi-experiment was conducted over a 15-week semester with 46 students in two sections of the same course-one section using Web lectures and one using traditional lectures. Many control measures were in place, including each section being taught by the same instructor and blind grading being used. The Web lecture section's grades were significantly higher than the traditional lecture section, and Web lecture students reported increasingly strong positive attitudes about the intervention. The twofold contribution of this work is a novel use of existing technology to improve learning and a longitudinal, quasi-experimental evaluation of its use in context