Case Study: Redesign of an
Online MIS Course to Include
Multiple Learning Styles
Gary Ury
Northwest Missouri State University
garyury@nwmissouri.edu
Study Description

Management Information Systems course


IS 2002.01 level
Service course for all Business Majors
MIS survey course that includes database
and spreadsheet projects
 Previous study found a significant difference
in final course grades between traditional
classroom students and online students
 Purpose: Redesign the online course to
include delivery that would address multiple
learning styles (audio, video, demos, etc.)

Study Design
Redesign content Summer 2005
 Lectures recorded in small units




10 minutes used as a guideline
Tegrity (http://www.tegrity.com/)
Impatica (http://www.impatica.com/)
Narrated and illustrated demonstrations of
Microsoft Access and Excel labs
 Written lecture notes, outlines, and chapter
PowerPoint slides were included in units


Text: “Fundamental of Information Systems” by
Stair and Reynolds
Student Demographics

Redesign group



113 classroom and 46 online students
Academic year 2005-06
Previous study group


800 classroom and 219 online students
Academic years 1999-2004
Student Demographics

Average Credit Hours Completed



Online 114 hours
Traditional 108 hours
Equal academic ability


ACT (22 online, 23 traditional)
GPA (2.9 online, 3.0 traditional)
Average Overall GPA
Average ACT Scores
2.98
3
25
2.95
24
2.87
2.9
23
22
23
22
2.85
21
2.8
20
Trad.
Online
Course Delivery Method
Trad.
Online
Course Delivery Method
Final Course Grades Comparison
Average Course Grades
85%
83%
83%
79%
81%
79%
77%
75%
Trad.
Online
Course Delivery Method
Traditional classroom students scored significantly
higher, 83%, compare to online students, 79%
Grade Comparison by Activity
Average Grade by Course Activity
100%
93%
88%
90%
83%
80%
78%
80%
76%
80%
73%
76%
77%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Class
Access
Lab
Online Class
Access
Proj
Online Class Online
Excel
Lab
Class Online Class
Excel
Proj
Online
Exam s
Online students scored lower on lab components
Comparison of Final Course Grades
Before and After Redesign
Average Grade Before and After Redesign
85%
84%
83%
83%
81%
79%
79%
79%
77%
75%
Old Trad.
Old Online Redesign
Trad.
Redesign
Online
Course Delivery Method
Traditional classroom students of both groups scored
significantly higher when compared to online students
Conclusions
Students self-selected the online sections

Willing to accept lower grades?
Found online format more difficult?





Students could not transfer to class section
Students quit participating but didn’t drop the course
Completing require business core course?
Two major questions remain:

1.
2.
How can technical, hands-on labs, be designed
to become more interactive and valuable to
online students?
How to motivate online students to stay in the
course and perform to the best of their abilities?