Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2005
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
EdD
College
College of Education and Human Services
Department
Learning Sciences and Human Development
Committee Chair
John G. Wells.
Abstract
This study examined the relationships between measures of (a) learner satisfaction with online courses on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and bioterrorism intended to address the educational needs of responder Communities of Practice (CoP) and (b) degrees of accomplishment by the learner with those online courses. Provided that course design characteristics were similar between courses and that content was different, it was important to examine learner satisfaction with course common aspects in relation to learning outcomes and identify the predictors of effectiveness and relations between the learner satisfaction with the course characteristics and the learner achievement for potential design improvements in the future. Specifically, the investigator set out to explore multiple measures of learner satisfaction (Content, Accuracy, Navigation, Look, Flow, Assessment, and Value) in relation to multiple measures of learner achievement (Pre-Post Gain, Follow-up Personal Benefit, Follow-up Organizational Benefit, Follow-up Subject-Matter Retention, and Follow-up Simulation Scenarios).;The results from the 67 participants' data analyses indicated that (1) navigation appeared to be a statistically significant predictor of learning achievement scores and (2) estimate of personal benefit was associated with value judgments placed on the course. Those participants who initially estimated that the courses were valuable later indicated that those courses had personal benefit to them. The learner's initial satisfaction with navigation was related to the determination of personal benefit from the course. The study contributes to further understanding web-based, process-product, and satisfaction-learning interactions by emphasizing the importance of navigation quality in web-based courseware as it relates to learning achievement and personal benefit for adult learners. The findings heighten the designers' awareness of the courseware aspects associated with learning effectiveness of exponentially growing web-based education on WMD and bioterrorism for responder communities.
Recommended Citation
Solovieva, Tatiana I., "Learner satisfaction and learning performance in online courses on bioterrorism and weapons of mass destruction" (2005). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2688.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2688