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Effectiveness Of Interactive Online Algebra Learning Tools

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In “Effectiveness of Interactive Online Algebra Learning Tools” (Cavanaugh et. al 2008), the authors study a small group of students to determine whether or not the use of interactive online Algebra learning tools is beneficial. For the purpose of this study, experts designed and developed ea set of research-based interactive tools was to implement with a sample of virtual school Algebra students to target the problems encountered when graphing linear equations. Researchers compared the performance of these students to that of students who did not use the intervention tool. Because the study only focused on a total of 101 participants who were unequally divided into two groups, I feel like the research is questionable and unreliable due …show more content…

It seems as though the researchers could eliminate this section from the article. The number of participants involved in this study is disappointing. This study only included a total of 101 participants who were unequally divided into two groups. Participants in both groups received both a pretest and a posttest as part of the placement and data-analysis process. Unfortunately, a portion of those participants did not take the posttest. Due to the lack of information, I do not feel as though I have a firm enough grasp on the methodology of the study to replicate it. The authors also include a statistical analysis of the pretest and posttest data for participants who were either using or not using the graphing tool. They also included the mean scores for each group. Additionally, the researchers calculated gain scores for each overall category to determine whether or not scores increased or decreased from pretest to posttest. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the observed differences were not significant enough to conclude a real difference between using interactive graphing tools and not using these tools. To be honest, the discussion of the data obtained from the study is difficult to follow and comprehend because of the terminology used such as “skewness and kurtosis values,” “negatively skewed and leptokurtic,” and “ANOVA using the Type III SS set.” Aside from the research that

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