Mark Grabe

Voluntary use of online lecture notes: correlates of note use and note use as an alternative to class attendance

Note taking and note reviewing are essential college student learning activities. A large number of carefully controlled studies have evaluated student effectiveness in implementing each of these skills and have found that both can be improved by providing instructor notes. While the Internet now offers a practical method for providing notes, some instructors are reluctant to offer notes because they fear that students will use these notes as an alternative to class attendance. This study used data collected by the server and questionnaires to describe voluntary use of online lecture notes, to search for correlates of individual patterns of note use, and to investigate student use of notes as an alternative to class attendance. Students primarily printed notes and used these notes during class presentations. There was some evidence that note users performed better on examinations than students who did not use notes. Some students did admit to using notes as an alternative to class attendance, but a comparison between the examination scores of those who admitted to this practice and those who claimed never to use notes for this purpose showed no significant differences in performance.

Studying online: evaluation of an online study environment

This study evaluates student use of an online study environment. Its purposes were to (1) determine if college students will voluntarily use online study tools, (2) identify characteristics of users and nonusers of the tools, and (3) determine if the use of online study tools relates to course achievement. Approximately 25 % of students used the online tools for more than one hour before each of three examinations. In comparing use of the study tools provided, the largest number of students made use of the online lecture notes and the greatest amount of online study time was devoted to reviewing multiple choice questions. The perceived ease of access to the Internet differentiated tool users from nonusers. Study tool users scored higher on course examinations after accounting for measures of ability and study skill.

Providing Introductory Psychology Students Access to Online Lecture Notes: The Relationship of Note Use to Performance and Class Attendance

The relationships among the frequency of access to online lecture notes, examination performance, and class attendance were investigated. Data on use of online notes were gathered from the log maintained by the server and from student responses to a questionnaire. Students who made any attempt to access online notes viewed notes associated with 74% of classes and most notes were viewed during the period of time corresponding to the delivery of lectures in class rather than the time period immediately before examinations. While students did indicate that access to notes was a factor in missing class, students who viewed online performed better on course examinations. Access to notes was associated with several different reasons for class absences. Of the reasons for missing class, only the frequency of absences associated with competing academic activities was related to examination performance.

Providing Introductory Psychology Students Access to Lecture Slides via Blackboard 5: A Negative Impact on Performance

The present study investigated the impact of making lecture outlines available on-line via Blackboard 5 on exam performance of students enrolled in introductory psychology. Performance of students in a class with access to information on Blackboard was compared to that of students in a class without such access. These classes were held in successive semesters, but had the same instructor, teaching assistants, textbook, lectures, and exams. Results showed that, across the three exams, students in the course with access to information via Blackboard performed significantly poorer than did students in the class without access to it. Performance in the laboratory section of the course, in which Blackboard was not employed, did not differ between classes. Thus, despite several potential positive ramifications of allowing increased access to lecture information, the impact of such access was not positive. The decreased exam performance may have been the outcome of decreased lecture attendance due to access to lecture information outside of lecture and several measures are discussed which could potentially address this possibility. The present results should alert educators not to rush to introduce technology into their course without serious consideration of the potential positive and negative outcomes such an introduction might have.

Cumulative Achievement in a Mastery Instructional System: The Impact of Differences in Resultant Achievement Motivation and Persistence:

This study developed an approach to evaluating the appropriateness of student effort within a mastery instructional system and then investigated the interrelationship of achievement motivation, effort, and achievement in two college courses. Appropriate effort was strongly correlated with student achievement, even when differences in student aptitude were controlled. In several instances achievement motivation was also shown to be related to the variables assessing student effort and achievement. Path analysis indicated that the influence of achievement motivation on achievement was mostly determined by the relationship of achievement motivation and student errors in expending appropriate effort.

A Technique for the Assessment and Training of Comprehension Monitoring Skills

More skilled and less skilled upper-elementary readers and college students played reading games in which they tried to determine if prose statements were internally consistent or inconsistent. The elementary students were assigned either to a control condition in which they played only the pre- and posttest versions of the reading games or to a training condition in which they were provided exposure to similar games in an effort to improve their comprehension monitoring skills. Ability group comparisons indicated significant differences in monitoring skill. Training resulted in a significant increase in monitoring proficiency. However, the training advantage was limited to an improvement in the ability to identify consistent statements.

Eye Fixation Patterns during Informed and Uninformed Comprehension Monitoring.

This study investigates the pattern of eye movements produced when adult readers encounter cross-sentence contradictions. Subjects read paragraphs which did or did not contain contradictions while their eye movements were being monitored. Uninformed subjects were asked to prepare to answer a question that would follow each paragraph. Informed subjects were told that the paragraphs might contain contradictions and that they were to prepare to report the contradictions and to answer a question after each paragraph. Eye fixations were categorized to indicate the frequency of different operationally defined patterns of eye movements. Analyses of the frequency of these categories provided evidence that both informed and uninformed subjects were aware of the inserted contradictions and that instructions to search for inserted errors caused readers to alter their reading behavior.

Reader imposed structure and prose retention

Abstract Two experiments investigated the impact of a readers perspective. In Experiment 1, subjects read stories from one of two directed perspectives or with no directed perspective. While no differences were observed in sentence study time, perspectives did influence the particular sentences which were recalled and the organization of the recall. Experiment 2 investigated the value of having readers organize and familiarize themselves with a perspective before the perspective was applied to a story. This procedure increased the influence of the perspective. Suggestions were made for application and extension of the present research.

Adult and adolescent readers' comprehension monitoring performance: An investigation of monitoring accuracy and related eye movements

Abstract This study investigated the pattern of eye movements produced when adolescent and adult readers encountered contradictions of common knowledge and crosssentence contradictions. Subjects read paragraphs that did or did not contain inserted errors. Uninformed subjects were asked to prepare to answer a question about each paragraph. Informed subjects were asked to prepare to answer a question, but were also told that the paragraphs might contain errors and that they should prepare to report any errors that were located. Informed adult readers were more aware of inserted errors than were informed adolescent readers and this situation was particularly true when the errors were contradictions of common knowledge. Eye movement patterns were influenced by the presence of inserted errors and by instructions to locate errors.

Effort Strategies in a Mastery Instructional System: The Quantification of Effort and the Impact of Effort on Achievement.

Abstract The mastery method of instruction stresses the importance of student effort to a much greater degree than a traditional approach. Mastery advocates believe that a student can compensate for lower ability through greater persistence. This research attempted to develop variables which quantify a students willingness to engage in appropriate effort and to relate these variables to student achievement. It was possible to demonstrate that the effort variables accounted for differences in student achievement beyond the impact of differences in student aptitude. Use of this method of assessing effort is urged in more diverse educational settings.