Comparative analysis of online and offline classroom instructions for effective learning of integrated science

Abstract

This study is a comparative analysis of teaching students in the online classroom environment and offline platform for effective learning of science courses. It adopted the survey research design. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt for the study. A simple random sampling of balloting was used to select 167 first-year students from the Department of Integrated Science, comprising 60 males and 107 females. An Integrated Science Achievement Test (ISAT) was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was subjected to face and content validation by four experts in the field of science education. Also, the instrument was trial tested on 22 Integrated Science students from the University. A reliability coefficient of 0.75 was obtained by using the Cronbach Alpha formula. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer all the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at a .05 level of significance. The study found that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of the students exposed to integrated science course through the online and offline platforms, p > .05. Also found was that gender has no significant effect on the achievement mean scores of students exposed to integrated science course through online and offline platform respectively. Hence, it is better to expose teachers and students to regular ICT training for efficiency and mastery to enhance effective learning of science course.