Following is the content of a PowerPoint slide presentation at the conference:

Abstract

The Department of Physiology & Pharmacology has been a pioneer in the use of new technologies for presenting material to students. From videotape and mainframe computers to multimedia and the web I have been part of an exciting progression.

This paper will present some of my experiences over the last two years when I used flexible delivery in the form of CAL based lectures and web based lecture notes for a block of material in the second year Pharmacy course.

The presentation will describe the development of the materials, some preliminary studies on the effect on student exam performance and some evaluation in the form of student comments and focus groups.

Slide 1:

Slide 2:

What do I mean by Flexible Delivery?

• Why did I introduce Flexible Delivery in this course?
• How did the students react?
• How did it influence their exam performance?
• How difficult was it to implement?
• Was it worth while?

Slide 3:

Slide 4:

Why did I introduce Flexible Delivery in this course?

• opportunity to present students with a different learning experience because of advances in educational technology
• experience in development of Web based self-directed learning materials
• previously developed CAL tutorials suitable for this class

Slide 5

How did the students react?

• email communication
• surveys
• comments
• personal discussion

Slide 6

student feedback - my first email!!

It is fantastic!!
The questions are very useful.
The text is a good backup to your lectures.
The diagrams are great as there is no need to copy them in class.
The only problem with it is some of the diagrams are a little unclear
and do not print out well.

I hope this was helpful

Slide 7

Survey Results

60% (94 students) of the class responded to the survey (results expressed as % of respondents)

	liked	did not like
flexible delivery overall	60%	21%
web based material	66%	28%
CAL tutorials	45%	50%

Slide 8

of those who liked the Web based material

90% liked to catch up on missed material and check understanding

10% liked not having to attend lectures

Slide 9

of those who did not like web based material

80% found it difficult to access

Slide 10

of those who liked the CAL tutorials

30% liked to work at their own pace

20% liked not having to attend lectures

20% liked to check understanding

Slide 11

of those who did not like the CAL

30% did too much extra work

10% could not easily access the CAL

Slide 12

Comments (from survey forms)

web was a good tool
lectures are better - easier to take notes from a lecturer than from a computer screen
web copy useful for backup
CAL took more time
like printout of the CAL
Lazy lecturers deliver CAL and Web based material
web is good as I can concentrate and listen to the lecturer without the need for taking notes
advantage is given to those with home PC's
get accurate diagrams
please keep web site

Slide 13

Discussion

this is our first web site - its great
I won't have to come to lectures on Monday morning
I like to talk to the lecturer
I find I spend too much time writing everything down
sometimes you say things differently on the Web
have we been given extra work?

Slide 14

Data from examinations which compare results in 1996 where only CAL was used with previous years where the same topics were covered in traditional lectures.

	1996	other years
Topic 1	% correct	% correct
Ques 1	52	53, 62
Ques 2	34	53, 42, 35
Ques 3	54	67
Ques 4	60	86
Topic 2
Ques 1	47	47, 31, 50
Ques 2	23	23

Slide 15

CAL and Exam performance (1990/1991)

• CAL was generally perceived by the students as better than other learning activities
• Exam results: Pre CAL 1990/CAL +lectures1991 - small but significant improvement in exam performance
• time taken on CAL was logged - some students took up to 5hrs for a 1hr CAL
• did not appear to reduce performance in other parts of the subject

Slide 16

How difficult was it to implement?

Some web based SDL's already prepared

OHP's for lectures already in electronic form

Authorware CAL's suitable to replace lectures already written

Slide 17

Slide 18

Slide 19

Was it worth while?

Slide 20