Development of a Web-based System to Support Self-Directed ...

Research question and population
The goals of the present study are to: (1) make students respond to the developed web-based environments that are
interactive, and (2) investigate the effects of such environments on the learning of the technical skills, more
specifically, microfabrication technology. The two classes that have been chosen were taught by the same instructor
and the course was of the undergraduate level. Students were required to take the course of “Introduction to Micro-
electro-mechanical System” to familiarize themselves with the fundamental concepts, and then they were asked to
take the course of “Microfabrication Technology” to have a comprehensive understanding of the microfabrication
technical skills. The participants in the Experimental group were comprised of 45 students in their senior year, while
the Control group was comprised of 30 senior-year students, who were trained under the conventional learning
environment, whereas the students in the Experimental group were trained for microfabrication technology with the
support of the interactive, web-based environments. The hypothesis that “the developed web-based environments
that are interactive have a positive effect on student technical skills in microfabrication technology” was tested, and
the premise was that students of the two groups had equal prior knowledge and skills, or in other words, that the
baseline drawn was objective. First examined was the prior knowledge of microfabrication in students. Fifty
multiple-choice questions in the Cognitive Aptitude Test (Table 1) showed that there were no observable differences
(p>.05) in terms of prior knowledge among students from the Experimental and Control groups before their
participations in the microfabrication course. This indicates that before the experimental teaching had taken place,
there were no differences noted in cognition in the students from the two groups. The results indicated that the
hypothesis for the study was reasonable.
Table 1. Comparison of cognition between students from the experimental and control groups
Group
Control group (n=30)
Mean SD
Experimental group (n=45)
Mean SD
p t
Pre-course Cognition
*p < .05
57.65 11.82 58.24 11.23 .682 -.412
Research setting and methods
The effects of the interactive, web-based learning environment developed were examined quantitatively, as well as
qualitatively. The quantitative analysis was drawn based on pretest and posttest scores; both of the pre- and post-
tests were administered in the first and the final week of the 18-week semester term. The qualitative data were
collected after interviews were conducted at the end of the courses, along with questionnaires administered to
measure levels of satisfaction among participants toward the courses and their perceptions of the teaching methods
used after completion of the courses. The course structure presented, the self-directed learning approach, as well as
the interactions exchanged were among the items that were examined. The Cronbach’s alpha value of internal
consistency was 0.769, which translated into strong reliability, as the criterion validity was based on the significantly
positive correlation of test scores for several universities.
Results and discussion
Table 2 shows the participants' responses for items that were associated with their levels of satisfaction on the webbased
learning interactions. The results showed that 93.3% of the participants agreed that the web-based learning
interactions helped them with their problem-solve skills with the utilization of microfabrication technologies (mean,
M = 4.15; standard deviation, SD = 0.521), while 90.0% of the participants believed the interactive learning
environments to have been a conducive learning environment (M = 3.98, SD = 0.632).
Table 3 illustrates the students' perceptions on the various features of the web-based learning environment. Nearly
ninety percent of the students surveyed agreed that the interface design was user-friendly and thought the content of
the course "well-organized." They also felt that the interactive web-based learning environments were able to
facilitate the investigation and planning of activities in the microfabrication laboratory, which made microfabrication
technology more appealing to them. The students believed that such environments not only improved their
technological skills but also enhanced their ability to integrate the learned technologies with the theories studied.
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