Evaluation of a computer assisted learning resource in an undergraduate anatomy course

The Virtual Lab- http://www.indiana.edu/~anat215/virtuallab/index.html

• Flash-based
• Highlights
• Function info
• Pin Me!  
• Heuristic evaluation

Survey – Fall 2007
245 respondents (58% response rate)
Questions:

• Do students use the virtual lab?
• How often do they use it? How much time do they spend using it?  

Other data collected: class standing, sex, learning style, qualitative data
160 respondents (~65%) provided access to semester grades

Respondent Characteristics: Class standing

• 19% freshman
• 39% sophomores
• 22% juniors
• 15% seniors
• 5% other

Respondent Characteristics: Self-Reported Learning Style

• 33.5% visual
• 2.4% aural
• 13.9% read/write
• 9.8% kinesthetic
• 39.6% multimodal

Virtual Lab Use Among Respondents

• 78% use the virtual lab
• 22% do not use the virtual lab

Virtual Lab Use: Frequency and Time on Task

• most (47%) use the virtual lab just before an exam
• only 1% of respondents use the virtual lab daily
• most (47%) spend 30 min – 1 hour using the virtual lab each time

Quantitative Analysis Results

• Association between learning style & virtual lab use is statistically significant (chi square = 11.535, df = 4, p =< .05)
• Certain resources may appeal to specific types of learners
• Some learners may be less likely to use specific resources

Frequency of VL use & learning styles
When comparing frequency of VL use among learning styles, the distributions in the 5 learning style groups are non-identical (Kruskal-Wallis p= < .05)

Lab Exam 2 Grades

• Muscular system & nervous system
• Virtual lab sections for this material completed in Spring 2007
• When comparing lab exam 2 grades between VL users & non-users, the distributions in the 2 groups differed significantly (Mann-Whitney U = 1622, p = < .05, 2-tailed)

Qualitative: what do students like best?

• Accessability (35%)
• Interactivity (28%)
• Use of class models in images (23%)
• Image quality (6%)
• Clarity of information (5%)
• As an aid to prepare in advance of class (3%)

Qualitative: what can be improved:

• More class models in images (43%)
• More histology (21%)
• More labels (18%)
• Fixing technical problems (15%)
• Other (3%)

Conclusions

• Learning Style plays a role in determining whether students are using the Virtual Lab
• Learning Style plays a role in determining how frequently students use the Virtual Lab
• There are significant differences in lab exam 2 scores between Virtual Lab users and non-users