The effects of web-assisted instruction in a social work research methods course

The objective of this paper is to report on the outcome evaluation of web-assisted graduate foundation research courses in the summer research sequence of Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville. The quasi-experimental pretest/posttest comparison-group design was used to test the hypothesis that students that unknowingly sign up for traditional or web-assisted courses would acquire knowledge at equal rates, but that the students in the web-assisted courses would report higher levels of course satisfaction. Although the actual content knowledge gain was better for the students in the traditional course, the two groups did not differ in their research knowledge at the end of the course. There was also a significant amount of knowledge increase for the experimental group, and a higher level of satisfaction in perceived knowledge gain. The students in the web-assisted courses showed a significantly higher level of overall satisfaction with the course. In conclusion it was found that the benefits of using web-assisted techniques are maintained even when strategies are used in courses that have not been advertised as web-assisted, hence eliminating selection effects. The study further indicates that web-assisted courses are just as effective as traditional courses in transferring knowledge to students. An important benefit of web-assisted technology is that course-satisfaction can be enhanced due to the effective path that technology provides to meet the needs of students.