Online Education: The How, Who, Where and When

Undergraduate students completed an online tutorial to investigate the impact of the method of presentation on performance, the relationship between personality characteristics and performance, and where and when students complete the tutorial. Performance on the posttest was not significantly different whether students reviewed the animated video or recorded PowerPoint presentation, but performance improved in both conditions from the pretest scores. Contrary to expectation, personality was not related to performance on the posttest. Students generally completed the tutorial in a private space such as a bedroom or dorm room and there was no specific time of day when students were more likely to complete the tutorial. These data suggest that the method of presenting the tutorial might be less important than the use of elaborative inquiry to focus the students’ attention onto critical aspects of the material and to have students think critically about the subject matter. In addition, it is possible that the use of elaborative inquiry might reduce the relationship between personality and success in online learning