Investigation of the effects of scorm adapted whiteboard movie techniques on students’ success in physics classes

The teaching method for the course chosen for the experimental group was one defined in literature with such concepts as hybrid learning or blended learning, which is one of the most remarkable and appreciated instructional methods including whiteboard movies. According to Smith and Kurthen (2007), today, there is a great increase in the number of hybrid classrooms incorporating online and face-to-face methods.

The present study aimed at investigating whether there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the students' levels of achieving the target gains and their levels of success in problem solving in the course.

In order to reveal to what extent the website designed for the lesson units of "Force" and "Motion" changed the achievement levels of the students from the schools of CFL, DAL and DK, a 40-item test for the course of physics was applied to 139 students before and after the application. When the mean scores obtained in the achievement test before the application by the participating student groups from the schools of CFL, DAL and DK were taken into consideration, it was revealed that there was no significant difference between the groups and that the groups demonstrated the same achievement levels. After the students used the web site, it was revealed that there was an increase in the achievement levels of the students from the three schools (Table 3). When the difference between the mean scores obtained in the achievement test before and after the application by the participating student groups from the schools of CFL, DAL and DK were examined, it was seen that the mean scores obtained in the achievement test by the students attending the school of CFL were found as 1.762 before the application and as 4.949 after the application; that the mean scores obtained in the achievement test by the students attending the school of DAL were found as 0.415 before the application and as 4.949 after the application; and that the mean scores obtained in the achievement test by the students attending the school of DAL were found as 2.808 before the application and as 7.290 after the application. The statistical analyses demonstrated that the differences between the mean scores obtained before and after the application were significant for all the schools (p<0.05).

There are many studies indicating that computer assisted instructional materials increase students' achievement levels (Jimoyiannis & Komis, 2001). However, we can say that there is limited literature on WBL. One of the existing studies about WBL was done by Demirci (2002). In the present study carried out in a high-school level in Florida, USA, it was found out that the students using the web-based material were more successful in the subjects of "force" and "motion" when compared to those receiving instruction via traditional teaching methods. Similarly, comparing the internet-supported education with traditional education in 8th grade level, Cüez (2006) reported that the students receiving Internet-supported instruction had a higher level of achievement than the other students. In a study carried out by Jang (2006) on various subjects (heat, reflection of light and changes in life) in the 8th grade course of science, the researcher found out that the students in the experimental group had higher achievement scores than those in the control group. It was revealed in the study that the students participating in the study generally believed that WBL applications increased their achievement levels. Similarly, another study carried out by Tas (2006) with 7th grade students demonstrated that WBL revealed better results than the traditional method of instruction. In the study, it was found out that the students' achievement levels increased when the 7th grade lesson unit of "Let's All Learn and Protect Our Blue Planet, Our Common Home" was taught via WBL. The researcher attributed this increase in the students' achievement scores to the large number of subject-based activities, analogy techniques, semantic analysis tables, concept maps, graphics, images and animations. In their studies, Daugherty and Funke (1998) and Hitz (1994) and Jonassen (1999) pointed out that distant learning was more effective in solving complex problems and in understanding the results of learning (Suanpang et al., 2004). Hayes and Billy (2003), as a result of a series of studies they carried out in North America in 2000, concluded that WBL was at least as effective as traditional learning methods. The researchers stated that WBL activities increased students' levels of achievement. In addition, the students participating in these studies reported that WBL materials were more effective than traditional learning methods. In another study conducted by Hewlett (2000) on WBL activities, students supported with WBL obtained higher scores than the scores they obtained via the traditional teaching method. Seng and Mohamad (2002) stated that students attending courses with WBL were more interested in their own study fields; that they more comfortably participated in traditional in-class discussions; and that they were able to carry out activities with crowded groups while teaching some special subjects. In this respect, it is seen that the results reported in these studies were quite consistent with the findings obtained in the present study.

Depending on the findings obtained via the applications carried out with the WBL material, the factors with positive influence on students' achievement levels could be stated as follows: there are a number of WBMs (White Board Movies) on the web site; questions can be followed up audio-visually thanks to WBMs; there is a WBM appropriate to each student; animations, especially those on the web-site including audio-visual elements, draw students' interest; slides and video-supported lecturing increase students' motivation in the lesson; the teacher and the researcher use the web-site effectively; the researcher and the teachers successfully take the role of a "guide"; and students participate in the lesson actively.

In addition, it was seen during the applications that there were various other situations influencing the students' achievement negatively. In this respect, there were several factors influencing the students' achievement negatively in the applications carried out via the web-site. These factors were the low levels of students' computer literacy, problems experienced while watching the teacher and the web-site simultaneously, lack of opportunity for students to access the internet during out-of-class hours, technical problems with the students' computers, easy loss of students' interest, noise in the learning environment and the difficulties experienced while controlling the learning environment. Research on the influence of web-based education on students' gains constitutes one of the important sub-problems of the present study. According to the results of Mann Whitney U test applied to understand whether the teaching method used influenced the levels of the students' gains, the comparison of the students' levels of gains revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in favour of the experimental group (p<0.05) and that no significant difference was found between the DAL and DK groups (p>0.05). Moreover, one experimental group and one control group were formed by gathering the experimental groups in the schools within the scope of the present study under a single group and the control groups under another group. According to the results of Mann Whitney U test carried out to see to what extent this experimental group and the other control group achieved the target gains, it was seen that the experimental group achieved the target behaviour with a higher level than the control group did (p<0.05). The fact that this result obtained was also consistent with the results obtained from the achievement test demonstrated that the whiteboard movie technique increased the students' achievement level. The fact that the gain scores and the scores obtained from the achievement test as well as the results obtained from the interviews were all consistent with one another was also important for the validity of the findings. The findings obtained in the present study were parallel to the results of several studies carried out in the field, while the present findings did not support the results of several other studies. Esch (2003), Fladd (2007), Tang and Byrne (2007), Bayrak and Karlı (2007), in their studies, concluded that the web-based, or Internet-supported, teaching method was more influential with respect to the students' level of achieving the target behavior when compared with the traditional face-to-face teaching method. In addition, Shen et. al. (2007), Ware (2006), Mentzer et. al. (2007) and Delialioğlu (2004), in their studies, reported that there was no significant difference between the web-based or Internet-supported teaching method and the traditional face-to-face teaching method in terms of the students' level of achieving the target behaviour. Furthermore, in the present study, it was seen that the use of different ways of solving the problems related to the physics subjects increased the students' self-confidence, their gains and their achievement (Table 4, Table 6 and Table 7). These results demonstrated that web-based learning would be useful at the desired level when appropriate conditions were prepared both in the school environment and at home. However, in web-based learning, it should always be remembered that the documents found in the web-site prepared be appropriate to the educational principles and to the course objectives.

As a result, since the problem solutions in the whiteboard movies prepared, the video-supported lecturing and the slides provide numerous opportunities for reviewing, they all increase the students' desire to learn and their achievement levels. In addition, including different question types in the exams given on the web-site (multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, puzzles, true-false, drag-and-drop, short answer and so on) helps students understand the subject better (Table 7).

Based on these results, several suggestions could be put forward as follows:

In order to achieve the desired success via web-based education, schools should have computer laboratories with fast Internet-access,
Students should be able to benefit from computer laboratories whenever they need during the time they are at school,
The Ministry of National Education should give importance to infrastructural investment on WBL in order to revise its educational policy, its structure and its function with the help of the opportunities provided by technology and to give education integrated with new technologies,

As a result of the applications, it is thought that teaching the course of physics completely via the web-based method will bore students in time. Therefore, it could be suggested that WBL be used in certain parts of the lesson units depending on the scientific process skills that the students are expected to acquire. Especially in the course of physics, it would be better to teach the subjects within the triangle of the class, the physics laboratory and the computer laboratory.