A preliminary investigation into first-year student interactions with an online self-study assignment: The biological sciences as a case study (original) (raw)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate trends in the usage of an online self-study environment. The participants were 162 students enrolled in a first-year Zoology/Biology class. The web site was developed and the material presented could be categorised into seven components: main study material, support material (anatomy diagrams), multimedia study aids (Flash movies), additional resources (FAQ's, printable course notes, and links to other online material), multiple choice tests, interactive activities, and general information (setup requirements, mentor's page, and credits). Web server logs were recorded for a period of 126 days, during which the students wrote one test and a final examination. Analysis of the log files revealed that the site was visited on 287 occasions, and received hits on 74 days (58.7%) during the study period. The highest page requests occurred during week days (Monday to Thursday) and occurred mostly in the early morning (7 to 9 am), when the public computer laboratories were least utilised. In addition, greatest activity was observed before the test and to a lesser extent before the examination. Approximately 59.2% of the visits lasted less than 10 minutes and were considered non-study visits. The highest average times (about 30 minutes) spent by users engaged in the site were recorded before the test and examination. In comparing the use of the different categories of materials made available, most activity was observed in the main study content, and to a lesser extent the support material, tests, multimedia aids and additional resources. The interactive activities were seldom used. This preliminary investigation has indicated that web sites are a promising means of delivering some biological assignments and some students are willing to make use of these self-study resources. Future work will attempt a more in-depth analysis of user interactions, and explore the reasons for the limited use of some of the material presented.