|
|
|
|
|
Get Going
|
|
|
Effect of Project Get Going on Computer Skills of Incoming Graduate Students Project Get Going was developed to help incoming graduate students enhance their computer skills. The project used a multimedia package that incorporated music and culturally appropriate vignettes and exercises in the hope that the incoming graduate students would have their computer skills enhanced. The sample was divided by teams. Each team attended daily hour-long, lab-based instructions using the Project Get Going multimedia package for 25 days before they started their graduate studies. All students were given pre and posttest to measure their level of comprehension and mastery of computer concepts and skills prior to, and upon completion of Project Get Going. Analysis of the findings of the pre and posttest scores will be used to determine the validity of Project Get Going and help determine if the project is succeeding in enhancing graduate students’ computer skills (Raw data is presented in Appendix A). It intends to answer questions such as: (1) Did participation in Project Get Going increase students’ comprehension and mastery of computer concepts and skills? (2) Is there a significant relationship between pre and posttest scores for the entire group? For males? For females? For each of the teams? (3) Is there a significant difference between pre and posttest scores for the entire group? For males? For females? For each of the team? Did the males and females perform differently? Descriptive Analysis A sample of 21 students was chosen to test the validity of this software multimedia package. As seen in Table 1, a total of 21 incoming graduate students were divided into three teams (red, blue, and green) with each team having the same number of participants (seven). Of the 21 students, 47.6% were female and 52.4% were male. The Red Team had five females (71% of the team) and two males (29% of them). The Blue Team had two females (29% of the team) and five males (71% of the team) and the Green Team had four males (57% of the team) and three females (43% of the team). The Pretest. The maximum score attained on the pretest was 23, with a minimum score of nine (9). The range of the scores was 14 while the mode and median was 14. The mean for the pretest for the sample population was 14.52. The variance was 14.06 and the standard deviation was 3.75. Males scored overall lower on the pretest than females. One of the two lowest scores attained on the test (9) was by a male. Males also did not achieve as high scores as females on the pretest. The maximum score for males was 17. The overall high score was 23. There were three modes for the pretest for males making it multimode. The median for the males was 14 while the mean was 13.82. The variance was 7.36 and the standard deviation 2.71. Females scored higher on the pretest than males. Though one female scored one of the two lowest scores, females had a better mean and median. Of the top five scores of the sample group, females scored the highest (23), the second highest, third and fourth highest as well. The females also had multiple modes of 14 and 18. The variance was 21.79 and the standard deviation 4.67. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics of Participants by Sample, Gender and Team All Males Females Red Team Blue Team Green Team N 21 11 10 7 7 7 Gender Male Female 11 10 11 0 0 10 2 5 5 2 4 3 Mean Pretest Posttest 14.52 19.95 13.82 18.36 15.29 21.70 15.29 22.71 14.71 18.57 13.57 18.57 Median Pretest Posttest 14.00 20.00 14.00 19.00 14.50 22.50 15.00 22.00 14.00 16.00 14.00 19.00 Mode Pretest Posttest 14.00 Mmb Mmb 20.00 Mmb Mmb Ama 20.00 Ama 16.00 Ama 15.00 Standard Deviation Pretest Posttest 3.75 4.79 2.71 3.26 4.67 5.72 3.73 4.39 4.57 5.26 3.21 4.04 Range Pretest Posttest 14.00 16.00 8.00 11.00 14.00 14.00 11.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 9.00 10.00 Variance Pretest Posttest 14.06 22.95 7.36 10.65 21.79 32.68 13.91 19.24 20.90 27.62 10.29 16.29 Pretest Score Frequency % 9-14 % 15-19 % 20-24 % 25–29 52.4 38.1 9.5 0.0 54.5 45.5 0.0 0.0 50.0 30.0 20.0 0.0 42.9 42.8 14.3 0.0 57.1 28.6 14.3 0.0 57.1 42.9 0.0 0.0 Post Score Frequency % 9-14 % 15-19 % 20-24 % 25–29 9.5 38.1 38.1 14.3 18.2 36.3 45.5 0.0 0.0 40.0 30.0 30.00 0.0 14.3 57.1 28.6 14.3 57.1 14.3 14.3 14.3 42.8 42.9 0.0 a Amodal b Multimode When looking at the results in terms of teams we also find very interesting information. The Red Team had scores ranging from 10 to 21, and was amodal. The median score for the Red Team was 15 while the mean was 15.29 while the standard deviation was 3.73 and the variance 13.90. The Blue Team had scores ranging from nine to twenty-three (the highest score attained in the pretest). It is also amodal, but the median was 14 and the mean 14.71 with a variance of 20.90 and a standard deviation of 4.57. The Green Team is also amodal, with members attaining scores from 9 to 18. The median for the group was 14, while the mean was 13.57 with a variance of 10.29 and a standard deviation of 3.21. Of the three teams, the Red Team had the highest mean and the second lowest standard deviation, making most of the teams’ scores to fall near their mean. The Blue Team had a second highest mean but had the largest standard deviation, which meant most of the teams’ scores were close to the mean.
|
|
|
|
|
