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Throughout the semester, students in the experimental group (group A) were learning exclusively with the DEPTHS
system, whereas students in the control groups (groups B and C) were learning in the traditional way. Three teachers
were involved in this experiment, one for each group. Teachers in the control groups employed traditional methods
(including multimedia resources), while the teacher of the experimental group was helping students in using the
DEPTHS system and by providing assistance when needed.
The course consisted of 10 concepts (i.e., software design patterns) which were gradually introduced, one after the
other. During the semester, the system was creating a test for each domain concept (i.e., design pattern) and assessing
the knowledge of the students from the experimental group based on the test results (as explained in Section 4.4).
At the end of the semester, the students from each group had to take part in a test created by a human teacher. This
type of test (often referred to as post-test) is used to appraise the learning effectiveness after the learning process took
place. It consists of a number of questions aimed at a detailed evaluation of a number of issues related to the quality
of the learning material and the delivery mode.
In order to analyze the tests’ results, we decided to use a paired t-test to compare differences between pretest and
post-test scores for each group (O'Rourke et al. 2005). The obtained results are presented in Table 1. The table
reveals that in group A (students who learned with DEPTHS), the pretest score was 57.21, the post-test score was
76.57, and the scores showed significant improvement (t=-9.19, P