1

The Learning Impact of a Learning Object

by

Ernest N. Biktimirov, Ph.D., CFA

MERLOT 2006

Organization of the Presentation

Introduction: Financial Education Research

Challenges of Teaching Finance Courses:Krishnan, Bathala, Bhattacharya, Ritchey (1999)

Innovative Ways of Teaching Finance:Becker (1993) – top ten lists

Limited Uses of Technology in Teaching Finance:Detzler (2000) – materials from printed sourcesSaunders (2001) – only 51% of faculty have course

homepages

Ardalan (1998) – entertaining metaphorsKane (1999) – popular musicBiktimirov (2003) – proverbsBiktimirov (2003) – graphical course outline

What is a Learning Object?

• Digital Resource

• Reusable

• Instructional

• Self-Contained

• Amenable to Integration

• Small Unit of Learning

• Self-Describing (Metadata)

Educational Benefits of Learning Objects

• Visual representation of the material

• An interactive, learner-controlled experience

Profile of the Students in the Traditional-Lecture and Learning-Object Sections

 Student

Characteristic

Traditional-Lecture

Section (n = 33)

Learning-Object Section (n = 27)

p-value using t-test for means

 

p-value using

Wilcoxon rank sum

test for medians

 

Mean Median Mean Median

Gender (Male-1, Female-0)AgeAdmission AverageGPA

0.6121.1278.8674.99

1.0020.0079.0074.70

0.5220.3080.3775.09

1.0020.0079.0075.30

0.5060.2730.2760.907

0.5620.2200.4120.911

 

Examination Scores

 

Panel A. Learning Format Examination Scores

Traditional Lecture(n = 33)

Learning Object Lecture (n = 27)

p-value using t-test for means

 

p-value using

Wilcoxon rank sum

test for medians

 

Mean Median Mean Median

Examination Score 53.64%

50.00%

61.11%

66.67%

0.315 0.262

 

Panel B. Examination Scores by Learning Format and GPA

Traditional Lecture(n = 33)

Learning Object Lecture (n = 27)

p-value using t-test for means

 

p-value using

Wilcoxon rank sum

test for medians

 

Mean Median Mean Median

GPA ( 75%) 42.78%

50.00%

58.97%

66.67%

0.085* 0.089*

  (n = 18) 

(n = 13)    

GPA (> 75%) 66.67%

66.67%

63.09%

83.33%

0.749 0.948

  (n = 15) 

(n = 14) 

   

*Significant at the 0.10 level.

Examination Scores

Portfolio, Expected Return, Risk & Diversification Learning Object:http://www.brocku.ca/learningobjects/flash_content/LO/Portfolio.html.

Multidisciplinary Repositories

Learning Objects of Brock University:http://www.BrockU.CA/learningobjects/

Co-operative Learnware Object Exchange:http://CLOE.on.ca

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT): http://www.merlot.org/

Other Repositories:http://elearning.utsa.edu/guides/LO-repositories.htm

Learning Objects Repositories