The effect of scorm compatible Whiteboard Movie technique,in web based systems, on students' academic achievement and attitudes in physics courses

In this study, a web site including teaching materials such as Whiteboard Movies, simulations and animations related to the topic instruction and solutions of the problems and evaluation materials like true-false, cloze tests, drag and drop, crossword puzzle, open ended and multiple choice questions found in ?Force? and ?Movement? chapters were designed. It was aimed at examining the effect of this designed web site on the their physics achievements, attitudes towards Web Based Instruction (WBI), their internet use and the level of accomplishing objectives targeted at the end of the course. In order to test the objective situations in the study, experimental research design with pre-test post-test control group was used. The study was carried out at Cumhuriyet Science High School (CFL), Diyarbakır Anatolian High School (DAL) and Dicle College (DK) located in Diyarbakir province and having a computer laboratory equipped with the internet in 2008-2009 academic year. Measurement tools were applied to the whole 10th grade students of those selected from secondary schools as pre-tests. At the end of the implementation, two sections whose pre-test scores did not differ significantly from each school were selected and they were included in the study in 6 sections. One section from two sections in each school was selected randomly as the experimental group. Thus, 139 students (76 students for experimental group and 63 students for control group) were included into the study from 3 schools. While experimental group was given Physics Achievement Test, which is related to ?Force? and ?Movement? chapters and prepared by the researcher, and attitude scale related to WBI and their internet use as pre-test and post-test, control group was given attitude scale related to WBI and their internet use as pre-test and Physics Achievement Test as both pre-test and post-test. In order to evaluate the students? opinions about the utilized web site and teaching approach, interviews were made with 19 volunteer students from the experimental group. During the implementation process, data base logs for the participants? attendance to web activities were recorded. Furthermore, at the end of the implementation, behavior control inventory for each student was created by examining their written exam papers in order to determine to what extent the students from experimental and control group accomplished the targeted objectives.At the end of the data analysis, it was found that the scores (post-test scores) that students from three schools in the study got from Physics Achievement Test differed significantly in favor of the experimental group (P<0.01). In the analysis of the data related to attitude scales, there was no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental groups (P>0.01).At the end of the implementation, there was a significant difference about the students? accomplishing targeted objectives in favor of CFL experimental group although there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups of DAL and DK. When the levels of accomplishing objectives of the students to whom both teaching/learning approaches were utilized were examined, it was observed that there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group (p<0.05).In analysis of all groups? achievement scores, it was observed that there was not a significant difference between the scores of the students in experimental group of CFL, DAL and DK and the students in control group of CFL and DK (P>0.01); however, there was a significant difference between these groups and DAL control group to the disadvantage of DAL control group (P<0.01).It was also seen at the end of the analysis of open ended questions in the survey that the students in experimental group were satisfied with the exams and instruction materials on the web site; however, they had problems about the delayed openings of WBM and the lack of implementation hours. When the findings of the study were evaluated all together, it can be thought that the use of WBI implementations in physics instruction might be useful at schools at which basic internet facilities and opportunities are in proper condition.