The purpose of this research was to explore students' reactions to three active learning designs during an interactive video professional seminar for occupational therapists and to compare students' attitudes toward interactive video using active learning to those using a lecture/discussion format. A descriptive case study was used to investigate the contemporary phenomenon of using active learning techniques as an alternative to traditional lecture/discussion during interactive video.
The case under investigation was a week-long interactive video graduate course for occupational therapists titled "Advanced Clinical Reasoning in Therapeutic Practice." The study was conducted at two campuses of a large urban university with an experienced occupational therapy professor at the urban campus and this researcher, also an experienced occupational therapy professor, at the suburban campus.
Interactive video was used to join five students at the suburban campus with nine students at the urban campus. Questionnaires developed for this study were used to examine students' reactions to three active learning designs: Jigsaw Learning, Fishbowl Discussion, and Guided Teaching. The Course Description, a semi-projective technique, was used to gather data on the impact of this course on students.
The Interactive Video Class Evaluation (IVCE) was used to compare students' attitudes toward interactive video classes using active learning to interactive video using a lecture/discussion based format. IVCE data from Temple University's On-Line Learning Program were used to allow comparison of this particular case study to four lecture-based interactive video courses.
The study found that all students responded favorably to the active learning designs and that IVCE scores of the active learning group were significantly higher than those of the on-line learning group, (t = (25) = 2.83, p $le$.000). Results indicate that the technical capabilities of interactive video can provide a high level of interaction, but careful use of active learning principles are necessary to realize the interactive potential of the technology. The findings of this study support the integration of active learning with interactive video for the education of occupational therapists.
Although this study is a pre-experimental design, results indicate that interactive video that uses active learning deserves future experimental and quasi-experimental research. Future research directions include opportunities for both qualitative and quantitative designs. Results from this study may be used to generate hypotheses for future study under experimental and quasi-experimental conditions