Questions and Feedback: Effects of Direct Manipulation and Animation in Facilitating Student Achievement on Tests Measuring Different Educational Objectives

Zhu, Li

Questions and Feedback: Effects of Direct Manipulation and Animation in Facilitating Student Achievement on Tests Measuring Different Educational Objectives

Open Access

Author:: Zhu, Li
Graduate Program:: Instructional Systems
Degree:: Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:: Dissertation
Date of Defense:: December 07, 2005
Committee Members:: Barbara L Grabowski, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Francis M Dwyer Jr., Committee Member
William J Rothwell, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member
Keywords:: Direct Manipulation
Animation
Questions and Feedback
Matching Questions
Animation-Elaborated Feedback
Knowledge of Result Text Feedback
Web-Based Instruction
Levels of Learning
Abstract:: This research investigated the instructional effects of three levels of questioning strategies (no questions, traditional matching questions, and direct manipulation matching questions) and three levels of feedback strategies (no feedback, knowledge of result (KOR) text feedback only, and KOR text plus animation-elaborated feedback). Three research questions were studied in this research: (1) were three levels of questioning strategies equally effective in facilitating student achievement on tests measuring different educational objectives? (2) Were three levels of feedback strategies equally effective in facilitating student achievement on tests measuring different educational objectives? And (3) was there an interaction between the level of questioning strategies and the level of feedback strategies? Participants were 184 undergraduate students who enrolled in a one hundred level Biological Science course during the fall 2005 semester in a large land grant university in northeastern USA. The students were randomly assigned to five treatment groups: no questions and no feedback control group (T1), traditional matching questions with KOR text feedback (T2), traditional matching questions with KOR text plus animation-elaborated feedback (T3), direct manipulation matching questions with KOR text feedback (T4), and direct manipulation matching questions with KOR text plus animation-elaborated feedback (T5). The study included an online pretest to determine the students' prior knowledge, followed by the web-based treatments and three online criterion tests used to assess student achievement on different learning objectives: (1) identification test, (2) terminology test, and (3) comprehension test. Two-way multiple analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to test the main effects and the interactions between the level of questioning strategies and the level of feedback strategies. Data were analyzed with all test items in each of the three criterion tests as well as the subset of difficult test items practiced with questions and feedback. For research question one, no significant differences in achievement were found among students who received different levels of questions when data were analyzed with all test items, F (3, 176) = 2.17, p = .094. However, when data were analyzed with the subset of difficult items, significant differences were found, F (3, 176) = 3.00, p = .032. Follow-up univariate pairwise comparisons revealed that students who received traditional matching questions (T2+T3) performed significantly better than students who received no questions (T1) on the terminology test only, p = .020. For research questions two, no significant differences in achievement were found among students who received different levels of feedback. For research questions three, no significant interaction was found between the level of questioning strategies and the level of feedback strategies. Important conclusions included: (1) traditional matching questions were equally effective to direct manipulation matching questions in facilitating factual, conceptual, and rules and principles learning; (2) traditional matching questions were more effective in facilitating conceptual learning on difficult items than no questions; and (3) no feedback, KOR text feedback only, and KOR text plus animation-elaborated feedback were equally effective in facilitating factual, conceptual, and rules and principles learning.

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