DTVI Experiment Results Summary

The results of the experiment were very encouraging, showing that, despite some drawbacks and surprising results, DTVI can be a highly effective way to learn.

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Higher GPA for DTVI Group (as high as TVI, higher than lecture)

These are estimated means, having controlled for student GPA. (Controlling for GPA helps us counter a possible effect of, say, brighter students having been in a particular method.) The difference between the TVI or DTVI method, and the Lecture method is statistically significant far beyond the 5% level, while DTVI and TVI test as the same at the p=.000 level.

Group Interaction in DTVI

DTVI participants felt the system let them behave in less inhibited ways. In studies of over 3000 conversations, we found that DTVI students exhibited more humor, shorter utterances, greater willingness to interact, and a higher frequency of participation than the TVI students.

Lower Evaluation of Virtual Lecturer and Virtual Facilitator

Classroom students showed a higher regard for the quality of the instructor. (Both TVI and DTVI students, who see the lecturer only on tape, give him or her lower ratings.) Furthermore, TVI students rate the facilitator higher than do their DTVI counterparts - again, the video image of the same individual (facilitator) gets the lower ratings. It appears that the video version of yourself may have less credibility, impact, or influence than your real self.

Video Depresses Evaluation of Content

We also see some evidence that students in the DTVI and TVI conditions had a lower estimation of the value of the course content.

Summary

There does seem to be a subtle theme of course content devaluation through video, perhaps arising somehow from the little TV images of individuals. Surprisingly, none of this affected the DTVI student grades. Good "group cohesion" was correlated with good grades for both DTVI and TVI, and DTVI groups did just as well as TVI in establishing group cohesion.

Download a PDF or Postscript version of the full "Purple and White" SunLabs Research Report.