Case Study: Case Study: Redesign of Redesign of an Online MIS Course to an Online MIS Course to Include Multiple Learning Include Multiple Learning StylesStyles

Gary Ury

Northwest Missouri State University

garyury@nwmissouri.edu

Study Description

Management Information Systems course IS 2002.01 level Service course for all Business Majors

MIS survey course that includes database and spreadsheet projects

Previous study found a significant difference in final course grades between traditional classroom students and online students

Purpose: Redesign the online course to include delivery that would address multiple learning styles (audio, video, demos, etc.)

Study Design Redesign content Summer 2005 Lectures recorded in small units

10 minutes used as a guideline Tegrity (http://www.tegrity.com/) Impatica (http://www.impatica.com/)

Narrated and illustrated demonstrations of Microsoft Access and Excel labs

Written lecture notes, outlines, and chapter PowerPoint slides were included in units Text: “Fundamental of Information Systems” by

Stair and Reynolds

Redesign group 113 classroom and 46 online students Academic year 2005-06

Previous study group 800 classroom and 219 online students Academic years 1999-2004

Student Demographics

Student Demographics

2.98

2.87

2.8

2.85

2.9

2.95

3

Trad. Online

Course Delivery Method

Average Overall GPA

23

22

20

21

22

23

24

25

Trad. Online

Course Delivery Method

Average ACT Scores

Average Credit Hours Completed Online 114 hours Traditional 108 hours

Equal academic ability ACT (22 online, 23 traditional) GPA (2.9 online, 3.0 traditional)

Final Course Grades Comparison

83%

79%

75%

77%

79%

81%

83%

85%

Trad. Online

Course Delivery Method

Average Course Grades

Traditional classroom students scored significantly higher, 83%, compare to online students, 79%

Grade Comparison by Activity

Online students scored lower on lab components

88%80%

93%

83% 78% 76% 80%73%

76% 77%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Class Online Class Online Class Online Class Online Class Online

AccessLab

AccessProj

ExcelLab

ExcelProj

Exams

Average Grade by Course Activity

Comparison of Final Course Grades

Before and After Redesign

Traditional classroom students of both groups scored significantly higher when compared to online students

84%

79%

83%

79%

75%

77%

79%

81%

83%

85%

Old Trad. Old Online RedesignTrad.

RedesignOnline

Course Delivery Method

Average Grade Before and After Redesign

Conclusions Students self-selected the online sections

Willing to accept lower grades? Found online format more difficult?

Students could not transfer to class section Students quit participating but didn’t drop the course

Completing require business core course?

Two major questions remain: 1. How can technical, hands-on labs, be designed

to become more interactive and valuable to online students?

2. How to motivate online students to stay in the course and perform to the best of their abilities?