Effect of the online learning environment designed with instruction activities model on students' academic achievements, attitudes and retention of learning

The general purpose of this study is to investigate the overall effect of the online learning environment which designed according to Gagné's Instruction Activities Model on students' academic achievements, attitudes and retention of their learning. The population of the study is sophomore students who studied the "Teaching Principles and Methods" lesson in fall semester of the 2016-2017 academic year at the Firat University Faculty of Education. In the direction of the research purpose, within the scope of the quantitative part of this research, the study group consists of 61 full attendance students who were studying in the Elementary Mathematics Teaching Department of the Firat University Faculty of Education. Student groups were randomly assigned as experimental (online learning environment platform designed with Gagné's principles) or control (traditional online learning environment platform) ones. The experimental group was consisted of 31 students and control group was consisted of 30 students. In the qualitative part of the research, 25 volunteer students constitute the sample of the research. Explanatory Sequential Design, one of the mixed designs in which quantitative and qualitative methods are used together were used in this study. Pre-test and post-test control group experimental design was used in quantitative part of the study. The achievement test developed by the researcher related to experimental design, "Web Based Instructional Attitude Scale" which was developed by Erdoğan, Bayram and Deniz (2007) and the "Attitude Scale for Student Perceptions" which was developed by Gür and Erdoğan (2011) were applied as pre-test and post-test to experiment group and control group students in order to determine student attitudes towards online learning. Also, the achievement test was applied as a retention test 6 weeks after the application. Two interview forms and rating scale were used in qualitative part of the research. One of the interview forms is the interview form for the online learning environment, consisting of 5 open-ended questions and the other one had four questions for understanding the student views about online learning environment platform designed with Gagné's principles. In the study, "Rating Scale for the Application of the Gagné's online learning environment " was used to determine whether the steps were applied or not. The application lasted six weeks. In the analysis of quantitative data, for the statistical evaluation of the data obtained in the creation and comparison of the Experiment Group and the Control Group, the mean ( X ), standard deviation (ss), percentage (%), frequency, Wilcoxon signed rank test, MWU, independent groups t-test, dependent groups t-test and one-way covariance analysis were used. Content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data. According to the findings of the study, it was seen that Online Learning Environment Based on Gagné's Teaching Activities Model constituted statistically difference in favor of the Experiment Group on academic achievement, persistence and attitude towards the course, and although it was not statistically significant in the Online Learning Environment attitude, it was seen that the arithmetic average of the Experimental Group was higher than the Control Group. The qualitative findings of the study; Gagné's online learning environment, a gradual model that allows learners to learn permanently and that allows the learners to transform their learnings into life, is a model that students often find useful and will also prefer to use it in their professional lives. In this respect qualitative findings generally support quantitative findings. Because, experimental research results show that students who are learning in online learning environments based on Gagné's principles are more successful, learners are more permanent and their attitudes toward the course are more positive. The result of this study shows that different models such as Gagné's online learning environment have the potential to provide alternative expansions to the teacher training system.