Distance education: An exploration of alternative methods and types of instructional media in teacher education

Universities currently are exploring an array of instructional media to facilitate the delivery of instruction. Consensus from the studies indicates that there is no significant difference in the achievement of students who participate in traditional or online coursework. However, little research has compared traditional learning with the new multimedia online technologies that are becoming more prevalent in distance education.; This study investigated the achievement, student satisfaction, and instructor course evaluations of preservice general education students who participated in three courses in which a variety of instructional media and methods were used. The media used were: (a) a traditional classroom, (b) an online classroom (WebCT), and (c) a class-in-a-box via CD-ROM. The various methods used to deliver the instructional content included PowerPoint notes, lectures, digital videos, and the textbook.; Pretest and posttest scores were analyzed to determine academic performance gains throughout the semester. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare posttest mean scores for the three conditions to determine if the type of instructional media and method had an effect on the academic performance of the students. Student satisfaction surveys were administered to ascertain if the media of instruction (traditional classroom, the online classroom, or the class-in-a-box) had an effect on student satisfaction in the course. Instructor course evaluations were administered to determine the effect of the media of instruction (traditional classroom, the online classroom, or the class-in-a-box) on instructor course evaluations.; In this study no statistically significant differences were found between the achievement of the students and the media of instruction (traditional classroom, the online classroom, or the class-in-a-box). Descriptive statistics indicated that the pretest scores of the students in the CD-ROM group were the lowest of the three groups while on the posttest the CD-ROM group had the highest scores. Also, no statistically significant differences were found in the student satisfaction of the three groups. They were all satisfied with the media of instruction (traditional classroom, the online classroom, or the class-in-a-box) in which they participated. Finally, the instructor course evaluations completed by the three groups were not statistically significantly different, indicating that the three groups evaluated the instructor and the instructional media used similarly.