The effects of online and face to face problem based learning environments in mathematics education on student's academic achievement

AbstractThis study aims at finding out the effects of the online and face to face problem based learning environments in mathematics education on student's academic achievement. The study was conducted at Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Faculty of Education, Hacettepe University. The subjects were 42 freshman students attending to this department at the Autumn term of 2006-2007 academic year. These students were put into two groups as online problem-based learning and face-to-face problem-based learning. The research was conducted on Mathematics-I while implementing the topic of ‘derivation’. The rubric for the students’ performance to evaluate their problem-based skills is used as data collection tool. .The statistical techniques used are ranked mean, Mann-Whitney U test. According to the results, the ranked mean scores (7.70) of achievement level of the students at the online problem-based learning group had higher than the students in the face-to-face problem-based learning group (3.30), which was also statistically significant (U=1,500, p