The experiments also examine the successful and unsuccessful strategies taken by students. Past research and experience in teaching on-line, multimedia classes show that some students struggle with using computers for learning and other students adapt very easily to this new format. We hypothesize that the differences in performance can be accounted for by differences in learning styles of the students. Preliminary results show that, in a hypermedia environment, students classified as active learners perform better than those classified as passive learners. Performance of the passive learners can be improved by imposing more structure on the hypermedia lessons.
Active learners can perform equally well in structured or unstructured environments.
Supported by the Multimedia Instructional Development Center Performance in the initial weeks of class is strongly associated with the successful completion of the course. As a result, some students are at an immediate disadvantage if they have not taken the prerequisite courses recently. While these students may want to review material before the semester begins or early in the semester, no in-place programs are available to guide their review. We have developed a series of remedial math lessons, using animation and computer interaction that can be accessed through the Internet before a statistics class begins and can be configured for various statistics courses offered throughout campus. A series of on-line tests assess the needs of each student individually and a personalized learning program is configured automatically to meet these needs.