Running head: STUDENT PERFORMANCE, INFORMATION SOURCES, 1

ACADEMIC TASKS

Student Performance: The Effect of Information Sources on Academic Tasks

Mitch Schroeder and John Damm

University of Minnesota Duluth

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Student Performance: The Effect of Information Sources on Academic Tasks

I. According to Gioia and Proserpio, “Web-based tools and courses may be more consistent

than traditional approaches with the learning styles of a ‘virtual generation’” (as cited in Blau

& Daymont, 2008, p. 275).

a. Using the Internet as a supplementary educational tool is supported by the government,

educational institutions and its teachers, and students (Barrows, Kubey, & Lavin, p. 366).

b. Friday, Friday-Stroud, Green, and Hill state that they “found no statistically significant

differences between the online and traditional sections in terms of student performance as

measured by their final grade” (as cited in Blau & Daymont, 2008, p. 277).

c. According to Bliuc, Ellis, Goodyear, & Piggott (2010) when combining face-to-face and

online learning if they were no adequately integrated they resulted in a disconnected

educational experience; and in some cases students perceive an inconsequential

relationship with their learning outcomes.

II. There was nothing relevant to web-based learning tools reviewed in the literature.

a. For the most part, the literature did not report on any web-based learning classes that

were relevant to student performance.

b. Although web-based learning tools were irrelevant throughout the articles, there were

several statements dictating that the Internet was used to “search” for information as it

pertains to academics (Chen and Fu, 2009), but not necessarily learning through web-

based tools.

III. Three studies have compared the effects of Internet usage on academic performance.
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a. Chen and Fu’s (2009) study on the correlation between Internet usage and students’

academic performance.

i. There were four different frequencies of Internet usage: at least once a week, two or

three times a week, seldom, and never.

ii. They also examined four different Internet activities: searching for information,

chatting and socializing with their friends, playing games, and other activities.

iii. While the frequency of Internet use wasn’t significant, what the students chose to do

while they were on the Internet proved to be quite significant in relation to their

academic achievement.

b. While Blau and Daymont (2008) pointed out that performance in the two modalities is

quite similar, Harrington and Loffredo (2010) examine how personality characteristics

influence an individuals preference for online versus face-to-face learning.

i. Introverts prefer online learning and extroverts prefer face-to-face instruction

(Harrington & Loffredo, p. 92).

c. Excessive Internet usage is associated with academic problems (Barrows, Kubey, &

Lavin, p. 380).

d. All three of these studies point out correlation between online activity and academics.

IV. The information generated by Harrington and Loffredo (2010) was gathered using online

web-CT surveys.

a. Harrington and Loffredo (2010) state that while instructors cannot change their
STUDENT PERFORMANCE, INFORMATION SOURCES, ACADEMIC TASKS 4

personalities to accommodate various personality types, they can alter their online

curriculum to better accommodate introverts; such as providing opportunities for

collaborative learning.

b. Also because there study was conducted through surveys there was no chance of

intervention in the students’ choice of online versus traditional classes (Harrington &

Loffredo, p. 91).

V. There are two articles relevant to our study that evaluates the learning process through

traditional learning and online courses (Blau and Daymont, 2008; Bliuc et al., 2010).

a. Blau and Daymont’s (2008) study looked at students who were taking an undergraduate

Organization and Management course.

i. Organization and Management is a required course for all business majors and minors

and it’s also offered to students outside of the business school (Blau and Daymont,

2008). Students outside of the business school were in the online sections of this

course.

1. The first measure, which is student performance based on students’

final grade, is the measure of relevance to our study.

b. Bliuc et al. (2010) looked at students’ conceptions of learning through discussions as they

pertain to face-to-face and online discussions.

i. Measures were taken by questionnaires for online and face-to-face discussions to

determine students’ conceptions, approaches, and academic performance in a political

STUDENT PERFORMANCE, INFORMATION SOURCES, ACADEMIC TASKS 5

science class (Bliuc et al., 2010), which is also relevant to our study.

VI. The current study is the correlation between the availability of technology and

academic success.

a. The primary purpose was to examine individual students' ability to complete a given

search-oriented task when held to the use of either electronic information sources or non-

electronic information sources.

i. Hypothesis: Type of access will affect task performance

ii. Prediction: Those with access to electronic sources will perform better in a given task.

VII. Like Blau & Daymont (2008) and Bliuc et al. (2010), this study controlled for one

confounding variable: the age of test subjects in relation to familiarity with technology, by only

generalizing to the undergraduate college student population.

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References

Barrows, J. R., Kubey, R. W., & Lavin, M. J. (2001). Internet Use and Collegiate

Academic Performance Decrements: Early Findings. Journal of Communication,

52(2), 366-382. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2001.tb02885.x

Blau, G., & Daymont, T. (2008). Student Performance in Online and Traditional

Sections of an Undergraduate Management Course. Journal of Behavioral and

Applied Management, 9(3), 275-294

Bliuc, A-M., Ellis R., Goodyear, R., & Piggott, L. (2010). Learning through face-to-face

and online discussions: Associations between students’ conceptions, approaches

and academic performance in political science. British Journal of Educational

Technology, 41(3), 512-524. doi: 10.1111/j. 1467-8535.2009.00966.x

Chen, S-Y, & Fu, Y-C. (2009). Internet use and academic achievement: Gender

differences in early adolescence. Adolescence, 44(176), 797-812

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Harrington, R., & Loffredo, D. A. (2010). MBTI personality type and other factors that

relate to preference for online versus face-to-face instruction. Internet and Higher

Education, 13(1-2), 89-95