Comparative and non-comparative evaluation in educational technology

In this assignment we summarized two types of studies in IT filed which are performance comparative and non-comparative study. The former was entitled as "Information retention from PowerPoint™ and traditional lectures". It conducted to investigate the effects of PowerPoint’s on student performance (e.g., overall quiz/exam scores) in comparison to lectures based on overhead projectors, traditional lectures (e.g., “chalk-and-talk”), and online lectures. To carry out the study the researchers used two delivery styles presented in the lectures, traditional and PowerPoint. A third presentation category, no class, was formed with the students that were not present during either of the delivery styles. This approach was used to their effects on the pre-defined variables such as: the quiz measured performance, recognition of graphic information, recognition of auditory information, recognition of audio/visual information, overall recognition of information – This was measured by the percentage of correct answers pertaining to the information provided during the lectures.

The latter study, non-comparative study, was entitled as" Does the amount of on-screen text influence student learning from a multimedia-based instructional unit?" .It was designed to examine how changes in the amount of on-screen text will influence student learning from a multimedia instructional unit on basic concepts of coordinate geometry. In order to measure the influence of the amount of on-screen text on students learning, performance gains and retention levels of the participants were assessed through performance measures.
These performance measures were based on the school’s curricular objectives and the instructional objectives of the multimedia unit.
The timing and the format of the tests were based on the school’s regular testing procedures (for example, short answer items were preferred). Two parallel forms were used to assess performance gains (pre post-tests) and a shortened form of these tests was used to assess the level of retention.

Click Here a PowerPoint format.


References:

1. Non-comparative Study:
Arda, D. & Unal, S. (2008). Does the amount of on-screen text influence student learning from a multimedia-based instructional unit?. Springer.
2. Comparative Study:
Savoy, A. and others. (2008). Information retention from PowerPointTM and traditional lectures. Computers & Education. 52