ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Keshmiri   S. (1)
Momeni Rad   A. (*)






(*) Educational Sciences Department, Literature & Human Sciences Faculty, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran
(1) Educational TechnologyDepartment, Psychology & Educational Sciences Faculty, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Department of Educational Sciences, Literature & Human Sciences Faculty, Bu-Ali Sina University, Pajohesh Square, Hamadan, Iran
Phone: +988118292590
Fax: +988118292590
akbar856@gmail.com

Article History

Received:  April  29, 2015
Accepted:  July 7, 2015
ePublished:  August 10, 2015

BRIEF TEXT


… [1-7] According to Gagne [8] learning is composed of a series of events which are external for learners and are designed to support the internal processes of learning.

Researches have been conducted regarding instructional design in the domain of e-learning, multimedia and other types of learning with Gagne instructional design model including: comparing the effectiveness of instructional design models by Reigeluth and Gagne [9], effect of Gagne`s nine events on motivation, learning and retention of learners [10], comparing the effectiveness of instructional design model based on Gagne`s model and Dick and Carey model [11], comparing the traditional method designed based on e-learning and e-learning designed based on educational principles of Gagne [12], and examining the use of instructional design models for training courses based on web [13].

The purpose of this research was to design and produce electronic content of "Engineering Statistics" course based on the Gagne model of instructional design and to evaluate its effectiveness on students learning.

In this study, quasi-experimental method with pretest-posttest design and control group and random assignment has been used.

Students, who had registered in the course of "Statistics" in the first semester of the academic year 2011-2012 in K.N. Toosi University of Technology (Iran) were studied.

48 students who had taken this course were divided into two equal groups containing control and experimental groups each having 24 participants on the basis of gender balance.

At first, both experimental and control groups were evaluated in the pre-test stage (before implementation of independent variable). Experimental group, after pre-test, was exposed for a semester to the designed course based on Gagne instructional design model as independent variable. The implementation of course was on four online sessions. In post-test stage (after implementing the independent variable), the participants in the both groups were again evaluated in terms of engineering statistics. In the implementation of the research, some questionnaires were used in pre-test and post-test stages. In order to assess the validity of the pretest and posttest questions in the course of engineering statistics, some experts and advisors were consulted for the validity of questions. To determine the reliability of essay tests, correlation between the scores given by different raters (inter-rater reliability) should be considered. The researcher and instructor of the lesson agreed over a method of scoring, and each of them scored the paper separately. Then to give scores to each student, the scores given by the researcher and given by the instructor were added together and divided by two and the resulting score was considered as the final score for each student. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Frequency, Mean, Median, Standard Deviation, Variance and Standard Deviation), and inferential statistics (Analysis of Covariance and its assumptions) using SPSS19 software. In order to evaluate the effect of teaching based on Gagne model on learning of engineering statistics and adjusting the effect of pretest on posttest, Analysis of Covariance was used.

There were 24 participants in each group out of which 13 females and 11 males were in experimental group and 12 females and 12 males were in control group. In pre-test, the mean score in experimental group and control group were 11.76 ± 0.93and 10.52 ± 1.02, respectively. In the posttest, the mean score in experimental group (16.41 ± 1.32) was significantly more than the mean score of control group (11.15 ± 1.09). The distribution of pretest and posttest scores did not change significantly. The designed course based on Gagne instructional design model had a significant effect on learning.

Design, production and implementation of engineering statistics course based on Gagne instructional design model was resulted in better learning in students compared to usual methods of learning. The results of current research are in line with other researches in the domain of applying Gagne instructional design model [9-18], however the results are not in accordance with the researches that have used other models of instructional design and have led to better learning compared to this model [19, 20]. The above-mentioned studies indicate that the use of Gagne instructional design model have led to a better learning due to its approach, the hierarchy and regular steps, determination of the hierarchy and sequence of activities and learning strategies, attention to internal and external conditions, cumulating effects of learning and the role of background knowledge in this process, attention to the maintenance and organization of data in mind, emphasis on structure, organization and sequence of information to facilitate the information process, creating a learning environment that learners can link their previous knowledge to new information, providing feedback (formative, diagnostic and final) that its approach is toward improving the content and pre-organizing strategies to link the lesson details and retention strategies in new situations. The results of above researches which are not in accordance with the results of this study indicate that using Gagne instructional design model in designing virtual courses has no effect on student`s learning. … [21-25]

Instructional designers should be informed about the production processes of e-learning courses. E-learning courses producers should not confine themselves to specific software and they should use a variety of educational software to have more flexibility.

Low internet speed, research conduction on only limited number of courses, studying a small number of samples and students, and performing a short term program are the limitations in designing such courses.

Applying Gagne instructional design model to design the content of e-learning course of Engineering Statistics is more effective on enhancing students` learning compared to designing such course without applying this model.

Dr. A.Teymouri, faculty member of Allameh Tabatabai University and Dr. Hashemi Parast, faculty member of K.S. Toosi University of Technology, Faculty of Science, are appreciated.

There was no conflict of interest in this study.

This research was conducted in coordination with the course instructor.

In this study, there was no need for fund.


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