1. Course Access Frequencies and Student Grades
Dakota State University

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

3. 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

4. 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?

5. Data Collection
From 2004 through 2006
Three courses selected

6. 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.

7. 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

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

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

10. 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.

11. Grade Distribution for Course I

12. Grade Distribution Transformed

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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 The textbooks came with a CD-ROM that contain supplementary materials.

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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.

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

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