Determining if a statistically significant difference existed on exam scores (common assessment) between a 16-week course and an 8-week course, based on different class lengths.
Upcoming HLC visit & work on ILO's/CLO's, to assess student learning of different class lengths, where students use critical thinking skills on a common exam.
GBS151-Introduction to Business is a top 40 class and I wanted to see if final exam scores (common assessment) would differ between a 16-week class and an 8-week class. The final exam was identical in both classes in terms of length, same questions, same online modality, same point value, etc. Thus, the only difference on this final exam was that it was administered to two classes of different lengths of duration, a 16-week class and an 8-week class.
Histograms of a 16-week spring of 2020 class and an 8-week fall of 2020 class, show means of 83% & 85%, respectively. Hypothesis: No statistically significant difference exists. A two-tail, T-Test was used for small sample sizes (< 30), showing a .316 where P > .05. A small T-Test score indicates that groups are similar. Thus, a statistically significant difference between the two mean scores does not exist and confirms my initial hypothesis.
CATS purpose: See if a statistically significant difference existed on final exam scores (common assessment) between a 16-week online course & an 8-week online course, based on different class lengths of GBS151-Introduction to Business. Given the upcoming HLC visit and emphasis upon institutional learning objectives (ILO's) and class learning objectives(CLO's), I wanted to assess student learning in this top 40 class, where students use critical thinking skills to successfully pass the final exam.
Histograms of the 16-week class and the 8-week class show a mean of 83% and 85%, respectively. Hypothesis: A statistically significant difference does not exist. Given two small sample sizes (< 30) of final exam scores, a two-tail, T-Test was used, showing a .316 where P > .05; small T-Test scores indicate that groups are similar. Thus, a statistically significant difference between the two mean scores does not exist and confirms my initial hypothesis. Further study may be needed to see if Covid-19 impacts final exam scores of future GBS151 classes, especially when we return to F2F classes.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 cats-gbs151-t-test-final-exam-s21.xlsx | 11.57 KB |
| cats-gbs151-final-exam-results-s20.xls | 34 KB |
| cats-gbs151-final-exam-results-f20.xls | 34 KB |
Comments
Hi Sylvia,
Thank you for sharing your CATS! I appreciate that you are assessing your students' learning outcomes in both your 16 and 8 week courses. It was interesting that there wasn't a significant difference in learning outcomes. This is a testament to your quality instruction. I liked how you incoporated our Critical Thinking ILO rubric . I look forward to your continued assessment when you return to a F2F course.
Have a great day!
Catherine
Hi Sylvia-
GBS151 is a gateway course in the Business Program, so it is really important to have this data regarding student success (>80%) in both the 8-week and 16-week modality. Sharing your data with students may alleviate concerns about their chances of success in an 8-week GBS151 gateway course and encourage them to select an 8-week class if it supports their academic goals and work/live balance.
I hope you will share your findings with the Academic Advisors that support the Business Program.
Thanks for sharing your CATS.
Clarissa