Abstract:
A Computer Interactive Multimedia Program for Learning Enhancement (CIMPLE) program was developed to enhance learning in an introductory agronomy course at Iowa State University. CIMPLE includes learner objectives, digitized tutorial video, key concepts, practice learning exercises, and self diagnostic quizzes. The self-assessment components are for students to quiz themselves over material presumably after having studied the material. Several students however started with the learning assessment programs, to test their initial level of understanding of material before studying, a process coined "reverse learning." To assess the concept of reverse learning, students were divided into one of three learning strategies: 1) students used the textbook, did not use CIMPLE and then took graded quizzes; 2) students used CIMPLE and the textbook and then took the graded quizzes; and 3) students first did the nongraded self-assessments on CIMPLE, then used CIMPLE and the text, and then took the graded quizzes (reverse learning). There was no significant grade difference across the three learning strategies. Grade performance was not influenced by learning style regardless of learning strategy. Students with different learning styles within a learning strategy had similar grade performance. While our results do not show that reverse learning is statistically better than the other learning strategies we tested, they do show that students using that strategy learn, on average, as well students using more traditional strategies.
Keywords:
reverse learning, interactive, multimedia
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