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Akın, A.(2022). The effectiveness of web-based mathematics instruction (WBMI) on K-16 students’ mathematics learning: a meta-analytic research. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-10931-x

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Abstract

Given the increasing prevalence of web technology, web-based mathematics environments have been increasingly widely used in mathematics education for the past two decades. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an urgent transition from traditional mathematics instruction (TMI) to web-based mathematics instruction (WBMI) at all levels of mathematics education. At this point, it is crucial to scrutinize the effects of WBMI on K-16 students’ mathematics learning comprehensively. This meta-analysis research contained a total of 63 studies with 115 effect sizes, which aimed to investigate the effectiveness of WBMI on K-16 students’ mathematics learning by incorporating potential moderators, namely mathematics topics, mathematical content standards, feedback status, type of instructional features, age (i.e., grade level), and assessment methods. Based on findings, WBMI has a significantly strong effect on K-16 students’ mathematics learning (g = 1.10, p = 0.01, 95% CI [0.95, 1.27]). Moderator analyses reveal that the effect sizes of WBMI on K-16 students’ mathematics learning varied significantly depending on all these potential moderators. Additionally, higher-level mathematical concepts, statistics and probability, WBMI with providing feedback, tutorial systems, undergraduate students, and traditional paper-pencil assessment are the strongest moderators in their context. The most notable results of this research are that WBMI is significantly more effective on students’ mathematics learning than TMI, while even in the context of WBMI, traditional paper-pencil assessment is significantly more effective than online assessment. This meta-analytic research provides a comprehensive and up-to-date perspective on the effectiveness of WBMI on K-16 students’ mathematics learning.

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... To address these issues, innovative solutions are needed to improve students' understanding of algebra while simultaneously enhancing their motivation to learn. One such strategy is the development of an e-pocket book, a web-based digital learning medium designed to support mathematics instruction in a more interactive and flexible way (Akın, 2022;Cobb, 2020). The e-pocket book enables students to access materials, practice problems, and instructional videos anytime and anywhere through digital devices such as smartphones or laptops (Juniarti et al., 2021). ...
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Compared with classroom learning, online learning requires students to self-regulate their learning processes and to maintain their motivation to achieve their learning goals. This study investigated whether the interventions based on the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction model and the modified Introducing the new concepts, Metacognitive questioning, Practicing, Reviewing and reducing difficulties, Obtaining mastery, Verification, and Enrichment method can promote students’ motivation and use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in a web-based mathematics learning environment. Two-hundred thirty-six Chinese high school students were randomly divided into four groups: motivational design group, SRL intervention group, motivational design and SRL intervention group, and the control group. Questionnaires and tests were administered to measure the changes in motivation, use of SRL strategies, and academic gains before and after the respective interventions. Findings of this study suggest that the knowledge gain of students learning mathematics online can be maximized when they receive instructional assistance in both motivation and use of SRL strategies.
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This meta-analysis is the first to provide a quantitative synthesis of empirical evaluations of mathematical intervention programs implemented in secondary schools for students with learning disabilities and mathematics difficulties. Included studies used a treatment-control group design. A total of 19 experimental and quasi-experimental studies containing 20 independent samples met study inclusion criteria. Results of a random effects model analysis indicated that mathematical interventions influence mathematics outcomes (g = 0.37, 95% confidence interval [0.18, 0.56]) for students with learning disabilities and mathematics difficulties. In addition, instructional time moderated the relation between mathematics interventions and student learning. Limitations of the study, future directions for research, and implications for practice are discussed.
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Editor's Note: PTJ's Editorial Board has adopted PRISMA to help PTJ better communicate research to physical therapists. For more, read Chris Maher's editorial starting on page 870. Membership of the PRISMA Group is provided in the Acknowledgments. This article has been reprinted with permission from the Annals of Internal Medicine from Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. Ann Intern Med. Available at: http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/151/4/264. The authors jointly hold copyright of this article. This article has also been published in PLoS Medicine, BMJ, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, and Open Medicine. Copyright © 2009 Moher et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Students who fail algebra are significantly less likely to graduate on time, and algebra failure rates are consistently high in urban districts. Identifying effective credit recovery strategies is critical for getting students back on track. Online courses are now widely used for credit recovery, yet there is no rigorous evidence about the relative efficacy of online versus face-to-face credit recovery courses. To address this gap, this study randomly assigned 1,224 ninth-graders who failed algebra in 17 Chicago public high schools to take an online or face-to-face algebra credit recovery course. Compared to students in face-to-face credit recovery, students in online credit recovery reported that the course was more difficult, and were less likely to recover credit and scored lower on an algebra posttest. There were no statistically significant differences by condition on any outcomes measured during the second year of high school (standardized mathematics test and algebra subtest scores, likelihood of passing subsequent math classes, cumulative math credits, or on-track rates). The benefits and challenges of online learning for credit recovery are discussed in light of the findings to date.
Article
Using WebQuests for inquiry-based learning represents a higher-order use of technology requiring students to exercise information seeking, analyzing, and synthesizing strategies. This research was designed to obtain a better understanding of how to enhance the pedagogical effectiveness of WebQuests and of how students interact with the various features inherent to informational Web sites. A major objective was to examine the effect of providing instructional scaffolds to support fifth-grade students’ WebQuesting experiences. The findings indicated that concept mapping templates coordinated with the research tasks enhanced students’ free recall and application of acquired knowledge. The importance of site design features, especially discourse quality, multimedia elements, and navigational systems, are discussed with respect to students’ ability to locate, extract, and apply information.
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Qualitative studies indicate that mathematics does not work well in e-learning. The current study used quantitative methods to investigate more objectively the extent of problems with mathematics in e-learning. The authors used student attrition as a simple measure of student satisfaction and course viability in two studies, one investigating attrition in e-learning and a second comparison study of attrition in face to face courses. In e-learning, attrition (drop out rate) was significantly higher for math courses versus non-math. For face to face courses, attrition rates for math versus non-math courses were nearly equal. The authors suggest reasons for high student attrition in math e-learning. Online student populations are different from their face to face peers. E-learning systems are poorly adapted to mathematics.
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In this study, community college students discussed their experiences with online and face-to-face learning as well as their reasons for selecting online (rather than face-to-face) sections of specific courses. Students reported lower levels of instructor presence in online courses and that they needed to "teach themselves." Accordingly, most students preferred to take only "easy" academic subjects online; they preferred to take "difficult" or "important" subjects face-to-face. To meet students' needs, then, colleges need to either more explicitly build instructor presence and guidance into online courses or continue to provide ample face-to-face sections of courses for those students who prefer them.
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Educational uses of the Internet are expanding at a rapid rate. This article describes the use of a homepage for a course in psychological statistics from which students could download most of the information germane to the class. 42 of 51 students' evaluations of the homepage were positive.
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This study aimed at determining the effects of UZWEBMAT (Turkish abbreviation of Adaptive and INtelligent WEB based MAThematics teaching–learning system) on the probability unit academic achievement of students and the underlying reasons for these effects. The study was conducted in an Anatolian High School located in a district of Trabzon province, Turkey in the fall semester of the academic year 2011–2012. The research sample consisted of 106 eleventh grade students and 2 mathematics teachers. Semi-experimental method was used in the study. Pre-Probability Unit Achievement Test (pre-PUAT), Post-Probability Unit Achievement Test (post-PUAT), Scale for Evaluation of the UZWEBMAT by Students (SEUS), Student Interview Form (SIF), and Teacher Interview Form (TIF) were used for collecting data. Research results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group (EG) students between the academic achievement of the EG students and that of the control group (CG) students. In addition, male EG students were found to be more successful than female EG students. However, no statistically significant relationship was found between the learning styles and the academic achievements of the EG students with different learning styles (visual–auditory–kinesthetic). In addition, no statistically significant relationship was detected between the genders and the academic achievements of the EG students having different learning styles. It was concluded that the higher achievement of the EG students resulted from the fact that they received education in accordance with their learning styles via UZWEBMAT, the learning objects included in UZWEBMAT had appropriate structural characteristics, students enjoyed learning in that environment, and students had continuous interest in the lesson.
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This study investigated the comparative efficiency of Web-based instruction (WBI) and traditional teaching methods on preservice teachers' fraction knowledge. Students' knowledge of fractions was measured using a Fraction Knowledge Test. The test consisted of 32 items and was administered as pre- and posttests to a total of 42 preservice teachers in two intact classes at the same university. One of the classes was randomly assigned as the experimental group (n = 21) and was given WBI. The other class was assigned as a control group (n = 21) and was given traditional instruction. Analysis of covariance was used to determine treatment effects on students' knowledge of fractions when the pretest result was used as a covariate. The analysis of results showed a statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control groups' posttest mean scores in favor of the experimental group.
Article
In this article, we present an evaluation of a Web-based, interac- tive tutorial used to present the sampling distribution of the mean. The tutorial allows students to draw samples and explore the shapes of sampling distributions for several sample sizes. To eval- uate the effectiveness of the tutorial, 111 students enrolled in sta- tistics or research methods courses used either the interactive tutorial or attended a lecture and a demonstration on the sam- pling distribution of the mean. Students in both groups improved from pretest to posttest and no statistically significant differences between improvement scores were found between groups. Addi- tionally, students rated the tutorial as easy to use and understand. In this study, we provide evidence that an Internet tutorial can be comparable in effectiveness to standard lecture or demonstration techniques. The central limit theorem states that the sampling distri- bution of the mean for any population, given an adequate sample size, will approximate a standard normal distribution. Understanding sampling distributions is essential to compre- hending many core statistical techniques. Unfortunately, students often fail to grasp sampling distribution concepts as presented in statistics textbooks (Dyck & Gee, 1998; Zerbolio, 1989). Consequently, students become confused with advanced topics (Howell, 1997). The sampling distribu- tion of the mean allows one to calculate the probability of ob- taining a sample mean given the sample size, population variance, and population mean. Researchers use this proba-
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One of the benefits claimed for computer-based assessment is that it can improve student performance in summative assessments. During the introduction of computer-based assessment in a first-year module on numeracy and statistics in Biology, online assessment was used to replace OMR-marked multiple-choice tests. Analysis of student results after the first year (Ricketts & Wilks, 2001) showed that students using online assessment did not perform as well as those using OMR-marked multiple-choice questions. The difference in performance could not be attributed to a weaker student cohort. In the second year student performance improved dramatically when they were not required to scroll through the question paper. Our results suggest that students may be disadvantaged by the introduction of online assessment, unless care is taken with the student-assessment interface.
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This article considers the application of cumulative meta-analysis, defined as the procedure of performing a (new) meta-analysis at every point during the history of a research domain. Two distinct facets of cumulative knowledge are identified: sufficiency (“Are additional studies needed to establish the existence of the phenomenon?”) and stability (“Will additional studies change the aggregate picture of the phenomenon?”). These two facets of cumulative knowledge define the purpose of the present effort: How can we determine whether a cumulative meta-analytic database has achieved sufficiency and stability? The authors delineate indicators of sufficiency and stability that might be derived from cumulative meta-analyses and explore the use of these indicators in a set of previously published meta-analytic databases. Discussion explores both retrospective and prospective implications of this approach to cumulative knowledge and compares the implications of this approach to cumulative knowledge with alternative views of social psychology as history.
Article
A lectlet is a short Web streamed-audio lecture synchronized to an interactive text-graphics display. Lectlets can be used either as distance-education courseware or as enhancements to traditional classroom education. In this study, I compared lectlet-based distance education to traditional education for 4 semesters by simultaneously teaching 2 sections of introductory statistics: one lectlet based and the other in traditional format. Students in each format visited the other format and compared them. Student evaluation and course outcomes showed that (a) lectlets effectively presented content, (b) lectlet-based format was better than the traditional course in 6 specific ways, (c) the traditional format was rated as a better overall learning environment, and (d) lectlets were valuable as ancillaries to the traditional format. Lectlets may be useful in any content-oriented course.
Article
Cheating is a major concern on many college campuses. For example, Davis, Grover, Becker, and McGregor (1992) reported that between 40% and 60% of their student respondents reported cheating on at least one examination. The 1990s also witnessed the unprecedented growth of distance learning and Web-based courses. Because students and faculty do not interact directly in such classes, they offer a unique venue for academic dishonesty. The present project explored student and faculty views concerning cheating and distance learning. The results indicated that both faculty and students believe it is easier to cheat in distance learning classes. Additional factors that impact the perceived ease of cheating in these classes are evaluated. (PDF) Academic dishonesty and distance learning: Student and faculty views. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236158886_Academic_dishonesty_and_distance_learning_Student_and_faculty_views [accessed Dec 17 2020].
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Studies of students enrolled in computer-based instruction have yielded mixed results, with some reporting a high dropout rate. Tis article describes a quantitative study examining the probability of students' withdrawal from a computer- versus lecture-based developmental math course based on learning style, reasons for selecting the instructional format, and entry test scores. Students in the computer-based format were more likely to withdraw from the course compared to those in the lecture-based format, and personal reasons for choosing a specific format appeared to influence completion rates. Implications for practice include suggestions for providing appropriate information to students prior to their enrollment in online developmental education courses. (Contains 4 tables.)
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This meta-analysis investigated how effective computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is on student achievement in secondary and college science education when compared to traditional instruction. Results showed a small positive effect for CAI use when used in simulation or tutorial modes, with individual computer use, and when used as a supplement to traditional instruction. (Contains 64 references.) (Author/LRW)
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In comparing the use of computers with traditional pencil and paper to deliver objective tests for summative assessment, this paper also considers issues of gender differences, objective testing, computer anxiety, and benefits to staff and students. Two tests were undertaken, using Question Mark R software and pencil/paper delivery, with 46 firs-year undergraduate students in a UK Department of Information Science. Initial results indicated that students are not disadvantaged by the introduction of computer assisted assessment (CAA). Recommendations include the need for thorough pre-test preparation and invigilation for computer assisted assessment; practice testing to enable students to overcome possible computer anxiety related to CAA, and support for LIS staff in creating tests suitable for computerized marking.