Meta-Analysis in Educational Research

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Effectiveness of computer-based education in elementary schools

A meta-analysis of 32 comparative studies showed that computer-based education has generally had positive effects on the achievement of elementary school pupils. These effects have been different, however, for programs of off-line computer-managed instruction (CMI) and for interactive computer-assisted instruction (CAI). The average effect in 28 studies of CAI programs was an increase in pupil achievement scores of 0.47 standard deviations, or from the 50th to the 68th percentile. The average effect in four studies of CMI programs, however, was an increase in scores of only 0.07 standard deviations. Study features were not significantly related to study outcomes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25814/1/0000377.pd

Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Alcohol and Drug Education.

Though alcohol and drug education has a long history in the United States, there is continuing concern about its effectiveness. Critics of substance abuse education have suggested that it inadvertently propagates drug use, presumably by increasing students' curiosity about drug effects and by supplying students with information about how to use drugs. Narrative reviews of the literature on substance abuse education agree on two points. Evaluations of substance abuse education are generally of poor quality and they do not provide evidence that substance abuse education reduces drug use. This study applied meta-analytic techniques to the review of research in this area. A careful examination of 126 reports was made, and 33 evaluations of acceptable quality were identified. These evaluations were coded on 19 descriptive variables, and their cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral outcomes were translated to effect sizes. Finally, statistical methods were used to look for relations between the descriptive variables and the study outcomes. The meta-analysis showed that substance abuse education had its most positive effects on the knowledge and attitudes of students. Behavior was less easy to change by substance abuse education. In fact, behavioral changes measured within a week of treatment were virtually nonexistent. However, positive behavioral changes were more apparent with a longer delay in measuring outcomes. The meta-analysis also found tentative evidence that programs were more successful when peers served as leaders and when the programs were longer in duration and more intensive in focus.Ph.D.Health educationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161202/1/8702678.pd

Computer-based instruction: Methods and development : S.M. Alessi and S.R. Trollip. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985, xiii + 418 pp., $25.95, paperback

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26381/1/0000468.pd

A natural language intelligent tutoring system for training pathologists: Implementation and evaluation

Introduction We developed and evaluated a Natural Language Interface (NLI) for an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) in Diagnostic Pathology. The system teaches residents to examine pathologic slides and write accurate pathology reports while providing immediate feedback on errors they make in their slide review and diagnostic reports. Residents can ask for help at any point in the case, and will receive context-specific feedback. Research questions We evaluated (1) the performance of our natural language system, (2) the effect of the system on learning (3) the effect of feedback timing on learning gains and (4) the effect of ReportTutor on performance to self-assessment correlations. Methods The study uses a crossover 2 × 2 factorial design. We recruited 20 subjects from 4 academic programs. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions-two conditions for the immediate interface, and two for the delayed interface. An expert dermatopathologist created a reference standard and 2 board certified AP/CP pathology fellows manually coded the residents' assessment reports. Subjects were given the opportunity to self grade their performance and we used a survey to determine student response to both interfaces. Results Our results show a highly significant improvement in report writing after one tutoring session with 4-fold increase in the learning gains with both interfaces but no effect of feedback timing on performance gains. Residents who used the immediate feedback interface first experienced a feature learning gain that is correlated with the number of cases they viewed. There was no correlation between performance and self-assessment in either condition. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V