Table 1

Characteristics of the six GE courses

                                                                                                                                                        

Course/ Quarter offered

Technical  base

Number of students

 

Online enhancements

Trad

Online

Both

Anthropology

   Winter 2000/02

MOBY1

1902

1853

n/a

Synchronous discussion group & quizzes

Food Science

   Fall 2000

MOBY1

242

65

56

 

Art History

   Fall 2001

MOBY1

67

16

9

 

Statistics

   Fall 2001

Cyber-Stats4

198

74

n/a

Interactive applications, practice problems, self-assessment tests

Psychology

   Fall 2001

WebCT5

36

18

24

Chat room

Viticulture & Enology

   Fall 2001

MOBY1

204

33

20

 

                                                                                                                                                        

1  In-house course management system 

2  Winter 2000

3 Winter 2002

4 Electronic textbook (http://statistics.cyberk.com/splash/)

5 Commercially-available course management system (http://www.webct.com/)


Table 2

Student Performance (Standard Scores, Mean = 50, SD = 10) by Usage Group for Each Course, Controlling for GPA and Class Standing

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                  Mean performance                            Standard Error                             Sample size

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Course

Trad

Online

Both

 

Trad

Online

Both

 

Trad

Online

Both

Anthropology

51.80

48.16

 

 

0.77

0.78

 

 

190

185

 

Food Science

51.26

49.15

48.60

 

0.48

0.93

1.01

 

242

65

56

Art History

51.04

48.77

44.46

 

0.87

1.85

2.50

 

67

16

9

Statistics

50.27

49.49

 

 

0.60

0.99

 

 

198

74

 

Psychology

50.31

49.20

50.96

 

1.34

0.95

1.16

 

18

36

24

Viticulture & Enology

50.06

50.34

47.52

 

0.54

1.33

1.72

 

204

33

20

                                                                                                                                                                                                             


Table 3

Significance test and strength of effect (Eta-Squared) for Traditional and Online Groups, by Course (Standard Scores, Mean = 50, SD = 10)

                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

Course

Mean Difference (traditional Ð online)

 

SEdiff

 

p(1-tail)

 

z-value of p

 

h2

Anthropology

3.64

1.25

.002

2.88

.014

Food Science

2.11

1.06

.024

1.98

.013

Art History

2.26

2.05

.136

1.10

.022

Statistics

0.78

1.16

.250

0.67

.002

Psychology

1.11

1.65

.252

0.67

.013

Viticulture & Enology

-0.28

1.44

.424

-0.29

.000

                                                                                                                                                                                   


Figure 1. ÒThis was a good course.Ó Means and .95 confidence intervals for student ratings (5 = Strongly Agree, 1 = Strongly disagree) by usage group for each course.
 


Figure 2. ÒOverall, the instructor is a good teacher.Ó Means and .95 confidence intervals for student ratings (5 = Strongly Agree, 1 = Strongly disagree) by usage group for each course.