Sixteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society

Abstract

Top textbook publishers are now including a variety of online platforms in combination with a printed or e-textbooks, and are marketing the platforms as a substantially helpful tool for both students and instructors. Based on data collected from various platforms used over the past 10 years, I found that the benefit of these platforms for students is simply acquiring procedural competence only. My hypothesis is that students’ overreliance on the help tools of the platforms, along with a large number of procedurally-oriented questions make these platforms useful for acquiring procedures, but not necessarily for understanding concepts. I propose modifying the reliance on a textbook platform to the creation of stand-alone courses that involve the use of interactive videos. The features for this approach would enable students to further enhance their conceptual understanding of the content, all while providing them with the interactive engagement needed to understand the content. I contend that hybrid courses that use interactive videos and smartphone apps would be more effective in delivering and ensuring a better and more rewarding educational experience for the students.