This study aims to analyze presentation types of e-learning contents that students prefer and their effects on learning. In order to find the learners’ preferences, it divides information presentation into single-medium presentation type providing o...
This study aims to analyze presentation types of e-learning contents that students prefer and their effects on learning. In order to find the learners’ preferences, it divides information presentation into single-medium presentation type providing one medium among simple text, verbal lecture, and video lecture and multi-media type offering options of media.
Research questions are posed as follows:
1. Do learners prefer multi-media presentation type of adopting various media to single-medium type?
2. Are there any differences among single-medium type, optional type, and multi-media presentation type considering learners’ interests, satisfaction, and learning activities (study hours, progress etc.)?
3. Do learners’ satisfaction level and learning activities depend on whether the contents type is preferred or not?
4. Do learners adopt their preferences when provided multi-media for one contents?
5. Are there any differences in satisfaction and learning activities between text presentation and video presentation?
A questionnaire survey was conducted to solve those questions. The respondents are total 127 students who are currently taking Action e-MBA and e-Biz management courses, which are designed for adults, and Cyber Campus courses which are provided to a university’s students. During the 15-week classes, progresses of study and study hours of students were analyzed.
The results are as follows:
1. Learners prefer the presentation type that provides various media and students’ choices to the single-medium presentation type. In particular, they lean to hard copy (50%) most, followed by web contents (43%) and video material (26%). However, they do not desire verbal material.
2. There is no statistically significant difference in learners’ satisfaction scores and progress among the presentation types. In contrast, differences exist in interest level and study hours. Compared with the single type, both multi-media presentation and the type to provide options of media show higher level of interests among the students. The more students prefer the information presentations, the more they are interested in them. However, no statistically significant difference is found between the multi-media presentation type and optional type. Respondents provided with various media spend more time to study than those with single-medium presentation. It implies the more learners are interested, the more they study.
3. Learners are like to be fascinated by the presentation type they prefer. However, there is no statistically significant difference in study hours and progress between the group provided with preferred presentation type and the group failed to get the preferences.
4. Learners do not always use their preferred media for studying. They adopt various media regardless of their tastes in order to advance their study.
5. When providing one medium between text and video, there is difference in satisfaction and progress of study, while no significant difference is found in study hours.
In conclusion, learners prefer multiple media presentation type to single-medium type. While the presentation type affects learners’ interests, it does not show statistically significant effect on satisfaction level and learning activities. This result corroborates the previous research that any educational strategies utilizing single medium could not promote the learners’ satisfaction and progress of study. It is because educational media interact with learners, purpose of class, characteristics of texts, and other circumstances, thereby create specific results. In addition, learners are likely to show higher satisfaction when provided with the presentation types they prefer. It implies that educators could improve learners’ preference and satisfaction level by offering various options of media. It is necessary to conduct further research on the variables to affect learning activities since preferences to presentation types are proven not to control learning activities such as study hours and progress.