A Comparative Study of Multimedia Personal Computing and Traditional Instruction in a Business School Curriculum

Abstract

This study compares the effectiveness of classroom instruction and multimedia personal computing MPC instruction to teach undergraduate business school majors the principles of Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect 5.0, and dBase III+. The effectiveness of three interactive videodisc courses was compared to the effectiveness of regular, traditional, lecture classes TI. For this study, two groups of approximately 55 students each, were randomly selected from 15 sections of an introductory, undergraduate, business school program. For all three courses the posttest scores of the MPC students were higher than those of the TI students; in two of those cases, the differences were statistically significantly higher. In addition, there was no difference in the total average learning time for both groups. Students in the MPC group, surveyed about their learning experience, indicated exceptionally positive attitudes towards the courses they had used and to MPC in general.