Based on the following Cal Poly Plan Technical Report: "Synopsis of General Findings: Ninth Week Final Evaluation of the Psy 202 Web Resources, Alpha Version (Fall Quarter, 1996)

Introduction

Students were surveyed at the ninth week to obtain an assessment of the usefulness of the web resources and improvement in their web competency.

Method

Of the 500 students enrolled in the course, a sample156 students were administered four surveys during the quarter as part of their recitation assignment. The last survey was administered in the ninth week class meeting and returned at the last class meeting of the quarter. Students assessed the usefulness of the web resources on a 7 point Likert type scale. Questions covered the usefulness of each of the web components, student reactions to the World Wide Web, the perceived impact on their web competence, their attitudes about instructional technology as it related to the course, and miscellaneous topics (e.g. printing and web page length).

Results

Text Resources

When usefulness is defined as ("a must", "useful", or "somewhat useful"), almost all the text components were highly rated.

	CHART
	TABLE

A more restrictive definition of usefulness ("a must" or "useful") suggests that the text resourrces most closely associated with doing well in the class are most valuable to students.

	CHART
	TABLE

Lecture Resources

When usefulness is defined as ("a must", "useful", or "somewhat useful"), most of the lecture components were highly rated.

	CHART
	TABLE

When a more restrictive definition of usefulness ("a must" or "useful") is used, those lecture resourrces most closely associated with doing well in the class are most valuable to students.

	CHART
	TABLE

Other

46.5% of all students, and 53.2% of the novices, reported that they were much more competent as a result of using the web. Almost a third of all students, and 38.7% of the novices, rated themselves as somewhat more competent. (Table)

Using this class as a demonstration, 83.9% of the students believed that adding web resources to supplement classes would enhance their educational experience.

In addition to using the web resources to fulfill the requirements of evaluating them, 57.8% saw the web resources as a tool to give them access to a wide variety of course resources, 66.9% considered the web resources to help them master the course content in order to get a good grade in the class, and 29.6% reported that the tool would help expand their awareness of a variety of psychology topics through the web.

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Survey data from the final exam, Spring Quarter.

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