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

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

• Gary Ury
• Northwest Missouri State University
• garyury_at_nwmissouri.edu

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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.)

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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

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Student Demographics

• 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

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Student Demographics

• 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)

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Final Course Grades Comparison
Traditional classroom students scored
significantly higher, 83, compare to online
students, 79
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Grade Comparison by Activity
Online students scored lower on lab components
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Comparison of Final Course Grades Before and
After Redesign
Traditional classroom students of both groups
scored significantly higher when compared to
online students
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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 didnt drop the
  course
• Completing require business core course?
• Two major questions remain
• How can technical, hands-on labs, be designed to
  become more interactive and valuable to online
  students?
• How to motivate online students to stay in the
  course and perform to the best of their abilities?