DTVI Experiment: Objective

The primary purpose of the project was to compare the instructional effectiveness of Distributed Tutored Video Instruction (DTVI) with its face-to-face counterpart, Tutored Video Instruction (TVI).

In TVI, 4 to 7 students gather in a small group to study a videotape of a lecture. With a facilitator who controls the VCR, the group can pause the taped lecture to discuss issues or ask questions. This form of collaborative learning is known to be effective, more effective than attending lecture, as measured by student grades.

DTVI is similar to TVI, but the students are physically spread around the campus. Each student has a computer with audio headset and video camera. They communicate through a shared audio stream and a collection of video windows. There are 9 video windows: with one window showing the facilitator and anther showing the videotape, there are 7 windows available for students.

Our primary objective was to determine if DTVI is as effective as TVI. We believe one of the main reasons for the success of TVI is the high level of interaction among participants in a TVI environment. These interactive processes appear to be largely dependent on participants having visual access to each other. The advent of high bandwidth networking makes it possible to conduct DTVI sessions distributed to multiple points across a network. A chief advantage of DTVI is economic in the it reduces the travel expenses that are normal incurred by students, but we really wanted to know: will this method work in the strange, TV-like world of networked multi-media?

Read more about the Structure of the Experiment and view the Preliminary Results.