Handbook of Distance Education : Second Edition

Topics. A study by Ketcham and Heath (1963) investigated the effectiveness of college-level educational films that did not utilize direct visual presentation of content. The purpose of the investigation was to create a film to teach an abstract topic, whereby the images in the video in no way reproduced the soundtrack. For the experiment, a 26-minute, black-andwhite film about the life and work of William Wordsworth was produced. The film included frequent quotations from Wordsworth’s poetry and was filmed in England and France. The audio portion of the film recounted events from Wordsworth’s life and summarized poems that he had written. The video portion showed scenes that complemented the audio portion but did not add additional information. For example, when recounting Wordsworth’s childhood, a picture of his boyhood home was shown. Subjects were n = 152 undergraduates randomly selected and placed into 1 of 6 groups: audio and video, single viewing; audio only, single viewing; audio and video, viewed three times; audio only, viewed three times; audio and video, viewed three times, with note taking and study time; and conventional classroom methods. A verbal aptitude test served as a covariate in the analyses. A knowledge test that asked questions pertaining only to the audio portion of the film was administered following the film. Results indicate that sound with visual images, which do not directly depict the content matter of a film, resulted in greater learning than sound alone. Multiple presentations of the film (with or without pictures) produced greater learning than a single presentation. Three presentations with audio and video produced the highest achievement, but the scores were not significantly different from the three sound-only groups, or the three audio-and-video-plusnotes group. The study also found that the type of presentation that is used matters less for high-aptitude students than for low-aptitude students. The authors conclude that films can work well under both normal and optimum viewing conditions for abstract material. 322 WISHER AND CURNOW Knowledge Retention. A study by Jacobs and Bollenbacher (1960) examined whether there were differences in the amount of subject matter retained by students in a biology class taught through television versus students attending a traditional classroom course. Participants were n = 360 students, half of whom attended the traditional course. The other half was given television instruction or traditional classroom instruction on alternating days. Results of the final test demonstrated that the learning outcomes for the two delivery methods were not significantly different for students of below average and average ability. However, for above average students the television group scored significantly higher than the traditional group. Twenty-two months after the course ended, students were given an alternate form of the final test. There were no significant differences in retention between the groups. Student Attitudes. A study by Bobren and Siegel (1960) compared an engineering course taught in a regular classroom to the same course taught through television. The course required students to meet in small laboratory sections, rather than as a large group, to allow them to clearly observe the equipment being demonstrated. A sample of n = 112 subjects participated in the experiment, assigned to either a closed-circuit television or regular classroom group. At the end of the course, students completed attitude surveys about the course and the manner in which it was taught. Midterm grades and final grades were also obtained. There were no significant differences found between the television and regular classroom groups on the midterm or final exam. However, students in the television groups rated the course significantly lower on 10 out of 11 scales. The television group found the course less pleasant, clear, fair, good, successful, meaningful, wise, understandable, interesting, and simple than the conventional class group. For 8 of 11 scales, the television group rated the instructors significantly lower than the conventional group. This is an early example of lower satisfaction with a distance learning alternative. However, the study showed no significant difference in performance between groups.