Students' performance on a paper-mediated versus multimedia tutorial for learning networking concepts

This study was designed to determine the degree to which learner affective and personal characteristics affect student achievement through multimedia and paper-mediated instruction. Two research questions were examined: (a) Is there a difference in gain between pretest and post test for the paper-mediated instruction group and the multimedia instruction group; (b) What is the effect of paper-mediated and multimedia instruction on achievement, when controlling for affective and personal characteristics? The statistical procedures used to examine the research questions were dependent t-tests and analysis of covariance.

Participants were 61 students from four classes enrolled in introductory computer classes in a high school in the Roanoke region of Virginia. The classes were randomly assigned to either a paper-mediated or multimedia treatment. Procedures involved having the participants from both groups complete five stages, either on paper or on the computer, based on group assignment. First, they completed a personal characteristics form. Second, they completed an attitude toward computers Likert-type scale, consisting of four subscales (anxiety, confidence, liking, usefulness). Third, they completed a 20-question pretest on networking terminology. Fourth, they reviewed instructional material in either a paper or multimedia presentation form. Upon completion of the paper or multimedia computer tutorial, the participants completed a 20-item posttest on networking terminology.

Based on the results of two dependent t-tests on the pretest and posttest for each treatment group, students did realize a gain in achievement from the pretest to posttest in both groups. In testing research question two, the analysis of covariance revealed a significant treatment effect and gender as a significant covariate. Students in the paper-mediated group performed better than those in the multimedia group. Females performed higher regardless of the treatment group.