Date of Award

Fall 10-16-2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Organizational Leadership

First Advisor

Douglas P. DeVore

Second Advisor

Tamerin Capellino

Third Advisor

Carlos V. Guzman

Abstract

Purpose: Despite their affordability and convenience, online courses have higher student failure and dropout rates than ground based-courses. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative single-case study was to determine if there is a difference between interactive, multimedia-based online instruction and traditional text-based online instruction as it relates to the level of student performance, engagement, and satisfaction in higher education.

Methodology: This quantitative research design used inferential statistics to analyze the research questions. The researcher selected 13 text-based courses that were redesigned to become interactive, multimedia-based courses. Archival student performance, engagement, and satisfaction data was abstracted from both the text-based and interactive multimedia-based versions of each course pair. The researcher then compared data sets using a two-sample z-test with independent groups.

Findings: Analysis of the data indicated a significant statistical difference in the levels of student performance, engagement, and satisfaction between students who completed the text-based version and those who completed the interactive, multimedia-based version of the courses. Additionally, the study also found that courses designed to be interactive and multimedia-based had higher student completion rates for significant assessments and student opinion surveys.

Conclusions: Based on the literature and findings of this study, it is concluded that due to online attrition, practitioners must first address the different ways in which students learn and engage on the web. By thoughtfully and intentionally leveraging high-quality multimedia technology and building social interaction around this content, online educators are better able to replicate the multimodal, active, and connected nature of learning.

Recommendations: To better understand the impact of IMBID on student retention, continued research must include student attrition data. By examining IMBID’s impact among different content areas, degree levels, and teaching styles and by adding a control group, researchers will gain a deeper understanding of its implications across fields of study. Lastly, examining the impact of IMBID in other e-learning industries will determine the universal impact of course design on all web-based styles of learning.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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