ABSTRACT
The Study investigated the relative efficacy of two Computer-Assisted Instructional Methods - video-textual and audio-power point computer assisted instruction (CAI) on students’ interest and academic performance in Computer Studies I. The purpose of the study was to find out if VT-CAI and ATPP-CAI would improve the interest and academic performance of Computer Studies I students in Colleges of Education, South-South zone, Nigeria, and the interaction effect of method and gender on students’ interest and academic performance in Computer Studies I. Six research questions were raised and six hypotheses were formulated and tested respectively.
The quasi experimental research design of pretest, posttest non-equivalent control group design was utilized. The population of the study comprised 487 Computer Studies 1 students from the eight Colleges of Education in the South-South Geo-political zone, Nigeria. Simple random sampling was used to select 77 students out of three of the colleges which were sampled by purposive based on the availability of the required equipment and internet connectivity. The three colleges were assigned into experimental and control groups. Two instruments namely, the Computer Studies Education Performance Test (CSEPT) and Computer Studies Education Interest Inventory (CSEII) were developed and validated. The internal consistency of CSEII was computed and found to be 0.76 using Cronbach Alpha while that of CSEPT was found to be 0.80, estimated using Kuder Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20). The experimental groups were taught Computer topics using Video-Textual-CAI for experimental group 1, Audio-Power Point-CAI for experimental group2, while the control group taught using the lecture method (LM). The study lasted for eight weeks. The data collected were analysed using the mean and standard deviation statistics while the hypotheses were tested using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) statistics at 0.05 level of significance.
The result revealed that students taught using ATPP-CAI performed better than those taught using the VT– CAI and LM. Those taught with VT-CAI was also found to outperform those taught with LM. Regards to sex, male students had a higher mean score than the female students. However, the ANCOVA analysis did not show any significant difference, thus CAI was found to be gender friendly. There was moderate positive interest in computer studies I among the three groups and when subjected to ANCOVA was not significant. In addition, the interest of the experimental groups were not different compared to the lecture method group with respect to sex. In the CAI groups, the female students had higher interest level compared to the males but when subjected to ANCOVA was not significant. The interaction effect of method by gender on interest and academic performance was not significant. Based on the results, it was recommended that ATPP-CAI should be inculcated into the teacher training programme as a teaching method to improve students’ academic performance and interest in Computer Studies. Also, the National Commission for the Colleges of Education (NCCE) should accept and popularize ATPP-CAI as a teaching method.
