The Impact of an Activity-Based Learning Environment and Grade Point Average on Student Final Course Grade in an Undergraduate Business Statistics Class

2016 
INTRODUCTION "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.--Confucius " The undergraduate business statistics (UBS) course provides students with an important business foundation. An understanding of basic statistical concepts can be critical to graduates' success (Lohr, 2009). While we, the authors, would like to think that we prepare our students to evaluate, analyze, and apply what they learn in UBS to real-world business problems, we reluctantly acknowledge that many of them fail to achieve these higher-order learning outcomes. One reason is that for many, statistics is a difficult quantitative subject in which one must learn numerous techniques. Frequently, the application of these techniques requires that students manually crunch numbers--often using only hand-held calculators. Students' anxiety over these expected computations often interferes with their ability to understand the relationship between statistical techniques and the objectives of associated analyses (Rynearson & Kerr, 2005) Moreover, instructors often introduce statistical concepts in an abstract form that emphasizes theory rather than application. As a result, students do not learn how to apply these concepts. Accordingly, a lecture-based learning environment (LBLE) that provides only a passive learning experience--typical of the learning environment of many UBS courses --may provide little value to many students. Research suggests that instructors may improve learning outcomes by moving beyond the LBLE to an activity-based learning environment (ABLE) (Kayes, 2002; Kolb & Kolb, 2005; Roehl et al., 2013). While instructors have used elements of active learning in the classroom for decades (Strayer, 2012), considerable recent efforts to improve student learning outcomes have focused on improving ABLEs further by incorporating online technology into a blended learning environment in which some instruction takes place inside the classroom and some instruction takes place outside the classroom (Garrison & Vaughn, 2008; Arbaugh, Godfrey, Johnson, Pollack, Niendorf, & Wresch, 2009; Strayer, 2012; Roehl, Reddy, & Shannon, 2013; Myxter, 2014). Online technology lends itself well to an activity-based, blended learning environment, because it improves instructors' opportunities to offer learning activities, and it extends instructors' abilities to monitor students. It enables students to learn basic concepts outside the classroom, leaving more classroom time for active learning experiences. Cited research led to our attempt to improve learning outcomes in UBS by employing technology to help create an ABLE. Numerous studies have suggested that using an activity-based approach may universally improve learning outcomes. However, two recent studies (i.e., Garrison & Vaughn, 2008; Strayer, 2012) have anecdotally suggested the benefits may be more limited because activity-based approaches may require additional student effort, they could diminish learning outcomes for students, who are less motivated to put in the additional effort). In a commentary literature stream, Whittingham (2006) and Noftle & Robins (2007) suggest that GPA is related not only to learning outcomes, but also to conscientiousness--that is, to the tendency for a student to put in effort. Students with higher GPAs are more conscientiousness and thus may put in more effort than those with lower GPAs. Taken together these two complementary literatures suggest that students with above-average GPAs may tend to put in more effort than students with below-average GPAs, and as a result have better learning outcomes. In other words, the relationship between the learning environment and learning outcomes may be influenced or moderated by the student's entering GPA, thus suggesting that an activity-based learning environment may not be universally beneficial. However, this dilemma has not been empirically investigated. Is it the case that activity-based learning environments universally improve student learning? …
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