Background/Purpose Adult learning theory (ALT) suggests that adult learners respond best to applications where they have the greatest amount of control. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether learning strategies used by preservice kinesiology majors, using computer-based instruction (CBI), were consistent with ALT and whether they could be influenced by providing a simple instructional prompt.
Method The participants were 51 preservice undergraduate kinesiology majors randomly assigned to treatment (T) and control (C) groups. After completing the IRB procedures, participants were given access to a CBI program for one week that provided assessment training and pre/post tested each participant. The only difference between the T and C groups was that the T group received a prompt each time they logged in that informed them of the recommended learning sequence.
Analysis/Results A 2-way ANOVA revealed significant (F(1,49) = 138.96, p<.001) improvement between participants' pre 54.96 (SD=10.98)and post 80.05 (SD=11.17)competency scores. A non-significant test by group effect (F(1,49) = 0.69, p = 0.410) indicated the learning prompt did not alter the T group's performance. No significant differences were found between the T and C groups usage of: tutorial (F(1,50) = .136, p=.714), guided practice (F(1,50) = .654, p=.424), or competency (F(1,50) = .024, p = .878).
Conclusions While the training effect of CBI was supported, preservice students were not using CBI as predicted by adult learning theory. Additional research is warranted to determine whether students would respond positively to having less control but being guided through more efficient learning sequences.