A Comparison of Secondary Science Achievement by Conventional Class and by Interactive Satellite Class

Dr. Brenda H. Ludwig

May 2002

This study compared the amount of learning that takes place in conventional high school physics and chemistry classroom with the amount of learning that takes place in a distance-learning or remote classroom.

The remote class used the means of live television teaching, which included real-time verbal and data interaction between student and teacher. Both remote classes, chemistry and physics, were taught from one central location to high school sites across the country. To keep the variables down to a minimum, each teacher not only taught the remote class but also, at a different time during the day, taught students in a conventional class. Each teacher gave the same notes, used the same text, generally gave the same homework assignments, covered the same lab topics, and used the identical graphics in both the remote classroom and the conventional one.

Academic performance was measured by a pretest at the beginning of the semester, intermediate tests during the semester, and a post-test at the end of the semester. The study was enhanced by student demographic information to see if substructures revealed pertinent insight.

The results are mixed:

1. In contrast to the popular opinion that students are better taught in a conventional classroom, and in contrast to a majority of studies reporting no difference in student achievement, this study supported neither view.
2. The chemistry remote classes scored slightly better than their corresponding conventional classes, while the reverse was true for the physics classes.
3. The only demographic variables that influenced physics performance were gender and class size. None influenced chemistry performance.

Note:  Complete study is available at the Mack Library located on the campus of Bob Jones University.