Computer-Based Education

Abstract The microcomputer was believed to be a panacea for all the educational problems dealing with instruction during the 1980s. Numerous studies were conducted to compare computer-based education (CBE) to traditional classroom education. Here five meta-analyses are reviewed. Student achievement (measured by scores on final examinations) reveals little difference between CBE and traditional classroom education. However, factors relating to instructor bias and type of application could be considered confounding factors that prevented these studies from providing significant results in favor of CBE. This article synthesizes these meta-analyses and concludes that CBE should supplement traditional instruction, not replace it.

[1]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[2]  G. Glass.  Primary, Secondary, and Meta-Analysis of Research1 , 1976 .

[3]  A. Sockloff,et al.  Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences: (revised edition), by Jacob Cohen. New York: Academic Press, 1977, xv + 474 pp., $24.50. , 1978 .

[4]  Khalili Ahmad,et al.  The Effectiveness of Computer Applications , 1994 .

[5]  Chen-Lin C. Kulik,et al.  Effectiveness of Computer-based College Teaching: A Meta-analysis of Findings , 1980 .

[6]  Yuen-kuang Cliff Liao,et al.  Effects of Hypermedia Versus Traditional Instruction on Students’ Achievement , 1998 .

[7]  Richard E. Clark,et al.  Confounding in Educational Computing Research , 1985 .

[8]  Diane M. Gayeski.  Multimedia for learning : development, application, evaluation , 1993 .

[9]  James C. McElroy,et al.  Computer Anxiety and Computer-Based Training: A Laboratory Experiment , 1990 .

[10]  Thomas Bernold,et al.  Computer assisted approaches to training : foundations of industry's future : proceedings of the Technology Assessment and Management Conference of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in collaboration with New York University, Lugano, Switzerland, 25-26 May, 1987 , 1988 .

[11]  Chen-Lin C. Kulik,et al.  The Effectiveness of Computer-Based Adult Education: A Meta-Analysis , 1986 .

[12]  The role of technology in continuing education , 1987 .

[13]  Gavriel Salomon,et al.  Transcending the Qualitative-Quantitative Debate: The Analytic and Systemic Approaches to Educational Research , 1991 .

[14]  Chen-Lin C. Kulik,et al.  Effectiveness of computer-based education in colleges , 1986 .