Course Access Frequencies and Student Grades Haomin.Wang@dsu.edu Mingming.Shao@dsu.edu Dakota State University

Access Frequency <?> Student Performance Face to face: Better attendance = higher grades? Online Higher access frequency = higher grades ?

Access Frequency Data in a Course Management System For monitoring student activities For identifying those who might need additional support For helping adjust pace of teaching

Research Questions Student course access frequency correlated to course grade? Student assignment access frequency correlated to assignment grade? Difference between female and male students in course access frequency? Difference between female and male students in course grade?

Data Collection From 2004 through 2006 Three courses selected

Course Selection Criteria At least 50% of the course materials are delivered via WebCT Assignments are delivered and submitted via WebCT The course has been offered for three consecutive years and taught by the same instructor(s). The course has a relatively large enrollment.

Course I A general education course in basic computer applications Large enrollment (280 – 340) Multiple sections Taught on campus A single course space in WebCT

Course II A general education course in natural sciences Relative large enrollment (40 -55) One section Taught on campus

Course III A general education course in arts Relatively large enrollment (62 -73) Two sections One section on campus One section online

Data Screening Data collected and loaded into SPSS for distribution normality test If significant skewness was found, histograms and scatter plots were used to identify patterns and causes of the skewness. Data collected were first screened for distribution normality using the SPSS explore procedure and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. If significant skewness was found, histograms and scatterplos were used to identify the patterns and causes of the skewness. For significant positive skewness, base 10 logarithm was performed to correct the skewness. For significant negative skewness, a reflection followed by base 10 logarithm was executed to correct the skewness.

Grade Distribution for Course I

Grade Distribution Transformed

Course 1 Correlations 0.288 0.248 0.317 Course Access / Course Grade Assignment Access / Assignment Grade Year R p R2 2004 0.381 0.01 0.145 0.536 0.288 2005 0.498 0.248 0.563 0.317 2006 0.389 0.151 0.392 0.154

Female Students Had Higher Access Frequencies Than Male Students Year Gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error 2004 M 148 261 99.49 8.18 F 135 300 92.84 7.99 2005 178 315 117.16 8.78 155 349 121.42 9.78 2006 143 436 167.10 13.97 141 498 199.80 16.83

Significant Gender Differences in Access Frequencies Year t df p Mean Difference Std. Error 2004 -3.405 281 0.001 -39.06 11.47 2005 -2.564 330 0.011 -33.62 13.11 2006 -2.864 282 0.004 -62.56 21.84

Female Students Had Higher Course Grades Than Male Students Year Gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error 2004 M 148 77.21 23.33 1.93 F 135 84.98 17.82 1.53 2005 178 71.05 19.41 1.45 154 73.81 20.86 1.68 2006 143 75.52 17.93 1.50 141 80.75 14.91 1.26

Gender Differences in Course Grades Year t df p Mean Difference Std. Error 2004 -3.125 281 0.002 -7.77 2.48 2005 -1.249 330 0.213 -2.76 2.21 2006 -2.671 282 0.008 -5.23 1.96

Course II : Outliers Skewed Access Frequency Distributions Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test Results on Course Access Frequency Year Statistic df Sig. 2004 With an outlier 0.124 55 0.034 Without the outlier 0.106 54 0.198 2005 0.181 42 0.001 0.129 41 0.084 2006 With two outliers 0.208 46 Without the outliers 0.107 44 0.200 Excessively high access frequency for one student with a total access count of about 900 hits, more than twice the average.

Course II : Grade Distributions Negatively Skewed Kolmogorov-Smirnov Normality Test on Course Grade Year Statistic df Sig. 2004 Before trans. 0.198 54 0.001 After trans. 0.115 0.073 2005 0.191 41 0.102 0.200 2006 0.154 44 0.012 0.110

Course II : Significant Correlations for 2004, Not for 2005 / 2006 Course Access & Course Grade Assignment Access & Assignment Grade Year R p R2 2004 0.597 0.01 0.356 0.618 0.381 2005 0.217 0.047 0.284 0.081 2006 0.271 0.073 0.408 0.167 After follow up investigation, we found that new textbooks were adopted for 2005 and 2006. The textbooks came with a CD-ROM that contain supplementary materials.

Course II : Gender Differences in Access Frequencies Year t df p Mean Difference Std. Error 2004 -1.629 53 0.109 -22.07 43.11 2005 -0.690 39 0.494 -30.45 44.14 2006 -2.023 41 0.050 -64.26 31.76

Course II : Gender Differences in Grades Year t df p Mean Difference Std. Error 2004 -2.224 53 0.030 -15.77 7.09 2005 -2.508 39 0.016 -15.27 6.09 2006 -0.756 41 0.454 -4.04 5.34

Course III : Access Frequencies Comparable between On-campus & Online Sections On-campus section Online section Year N Mean Sd 2004 73 256 109.01 27 272 112.90 2005 62 248 83.12 25 283 92.34 2006 71 257 73.87 24 295 75.88

Course III: Correlations between Access Frequencies and Course Grades On-campus Section Online Section Year N R p R2 2004 73 0.098 0.01 27 0.221 0.049 2005 62 0.325 25 0.243 2006 71 0.537 0.289 24 0.346 0.119

Course III: Correlations between Assignment Access and Assignment Grades On-campus section Online section Year N R p R2 2004 73 0.112 0.013 27 0.201 0.040 2005 62 0.237 25 0.263 2006 71 0.485 0.01 0.236 24 0.313 0.098

Course III: Gender Differences in Course Access Frequency (on-campus section) Year t df p Mean Difference Std. Error 2004 -0.648 71 0.519 -14.93 23.04 2005 -0.361 60 0.719 -9.27 25.69 2006 -0.423 69 0.323 -12.61 22.31

Course III: Gender Differences in Course Grade (on-campus section) Year t df p Mean Difference Std. Error 2004 -1.672 71 0.099 -4.78 2.86 2005 -0.604 60 0.548 -2.85 4.72 2006 -1.236 69 0.286 -3.42 3.58

Conclusions Access frequencies can be correlated to course grades and assignment grades when a significant amount of course materials are delivered to the students through the course site. Amount of course materials delivered online versus made available offline could an important factor in determining correlation between access frequency and course grade.

Factors to Consider for Further Studies Access duration Course content Assignment content Teaching methodology Student characteristics

Thank You! Haomin.Wang@dsu.edu Mingming.Shao@dsu.edu Questions? Thank You! Haomin.Wang@dsu.edu Mingming.Shao@dsu.edu