Internet Learning Volume 7, Number 1 • 2018/2019 | Page 10

Assessing the Effect of Course Materials Type on Undergraduate Student Performance in an Online Setting
8-week course over a six-month period,
July–December 2016, where there are
monthly course starts rather than traditional
fall/spring/summer course starts.
Each month, approximately four sections
of the course were scheduled: with
one section randomly assigned to the
treatment group (i.e., students received
physical course materials via mail). The
other sections did not receive the treatment.
Students enrolled in the no treatment
group received electronic course
materials. The course material used was
a traditional, single author, pay for access,
textbook. The print and electronic
versions of this textbook did not differ
in content or organization, therefore
minimizing the potential impact that
the factors would have had on student
experience with the course material.
This study included 482 students, or
participants.
Students who were assigned to
electronic course materials may have
self-selected to purchase a physical
copy of the course materials or print
the electronic course materials. To address
this concern in our data set, we
asked each participating student if they
received physical course materials (e.g.,
from the institution, by personal purchase,
or through printing the assigned
electronic materials) or if they solely
used the electronic course materials
provided in the classroom. Of the 482
students included in the study, 355 students
reported using electronic course
materials and 127 students reported using
physical course materials.
The relationship between the
type of course materials (e.g., electronic,
print) and student performance on
assessments was examined. Assessments
that required a high degree of
reading comprehension and retention
were examined (e.g., discussion forums,
quizzes) and assessments that required
a medium degree of reading comprehension
and retention with a larger focus
on synthesis and application were
also examined (e.g., assignments). In
discussion forums, for example, students
respond to a prompt that requires
them to analyze specific concepts in the
text. Likewise, quizzes require reading
comprehension, retention, and analysis
of the reading. Assignments focus more
on application and synthesis. For example,
students may be asked to identify
how a theory from a particular discipline
relates to a current event that they
choose. Final course grades and percentages
of the course completed were
also measured. After the conclusion of
the course and reporting of final grades,
data on course material type and student
performance were collected from
online classrooms.
Statistical analyses were performed
using the Statistical Package
for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics,
Version 23.0). We used one-way
ANOVA tests to examine the relationship
between dependent, continuous
student performance variables and the
independent, nominal variable, course
material type.
Results
We predicted that course material
type would not have
an effect on student perfor-
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