Evaluating Internet Education -
Findings and Methodology of the Internet Master Program in Missouri1
Summary Report
The subject matter is new. The program delivery method
has a history of more than 75 years of success.
Since the early 1900's University Extension has had a history of success
teaching early adopters and community innovators about farming practices and family living
practices that would improve lives. In turn the early adopters and innovators tried the
new methods and then turned around and taught their friends and neighbors about the new
practices. Today the cutting edge subject matter is computer technology and the Internet.
The Internet Master concept was developed by a committee of Saline County
citizens, Don Day, Maryann Redelfs and Cynthia Crawford, Central Missouri Regional
Specialists with the enthusiastic support of Mark Stillwell, Central Missouri Regional
Director. Saline County Division of Employment Security Director Linda Dryer started the
project with a phone call to the Saline County Extension Center, "I’m not sure
I’m calling the right place, however I’m concerned that the Information
Superhighway isn’t going to have exit ramps in rural Missouri unless we are assertive
in getting access to the information. What can Extension do to get people working and
learning together?"
Patterned after the Master Gardener program, Internet Masters attend a
minimum of 30 hours of instruction on the Internet and facilitating community education.
Internet Masters receive in-depth instruction on Internet service providers, E-mail,
searching the World Wide Web, downloading files, creating a web page, using browser
programs, virus protection, evaluating information from the World Wide Web and tapping
into individual teaching and learning strengths. Following classes, the Internet Masters
are to do a minimum of 30 hours of volunteer community education about the Internet within
a year of completing the program. For details about the Internet Master curriculum and
programming management please visit the Internet Master Home Page at http://outreach.missouri.edu/imaster/.
The purpose of this evaluation is to:
examine the training approach,
document the impact of volunteer community education on program
participants and
evaluate the effectiveness of the Internet Master train-the-trainer
model to address the lack of community adult education about Internet access and
utilization. For data collection instruments and greater detail about the evaluation
methodology please visit the web site at http://outreach.missouri.edu/saline/IMaster/.
The pilot classes for this evaluation were taught 1996-1998 and had a
total enrollment of 499 in 20 classes in various locations around the state of Missouri.
Of particular interest was documenting the long-term impact of the programming on the
Internet Masters and documenting hours of volunteer community education and numbers
reached through the reteaching of information by the Internet Masters. The evaluation
project continued through 1999 in order to collect long-term evaluation data.
In addition to increasing use and knowledge of the Internet, a second
salient goal of Internet Master programming was to empower Internet Masters to facilitate
community Internet education to address the void of high quality adult Internet education
from 1996-1998 in Missouri communities.
Was the programming effective? In a word, yes. There was a statistically
significant difference at the .0001 level among repeated measures of knowledge and use of
the Internet and facilitating community education from the beginning of class 1 to the
conclusion of class 10 and from the conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer
community education. The increase in use and knowledge of the Internet from the beginning
of classes to the end of classes and the increase in confidence to facilitate community
education can be attributed to the success of the curriculum. The second statistically
significant educational effect from the conclusion of class to the conclusion of volunteer
education can be associated with the importance of reteaching information to the Internet
Master.
There was not a statistically significant difference at the .05 level
between Learning Type Measures and watching/doing measures and repeated measures of
knowledge and use of the Internet and facilitating community education from the beginning
of class 1 to the conclusion of class 10 and from the conclusion of class 10 to the
conclusion of volunteer community education. This would suggest that the curriculum was
successful for participants with a variety of learning styles and that it is effective for
both individuals that learn best by watching as well as those that learn best by doing.
There was a statistically significant relationship at the .05 level
between volunteer success and facilitating community education and knowledge and use of
the Internet from the conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer community
education.
Summary of Findings
The Internet Master program attracted adults of all ages, from teens to
learners in their 70's. More than ninety-five percent of those enrolled in the 1996 and
1997 classes were 30 years old or more. Seventy-seven percent of those enrolled were 40
years old or older. Nearly nine percent were 70 years of age or older.
The Internet Master program attracted people from a wide variety of
educational backgrounds. Twenty-six percent had a high school education or less, 45% had
an undergraduate degree, while 29% had graduate degrees.
Internet Masters were highly motivated to learn about the Internet. More
than 93% of the Internet Masters rated their motivation to learn about the Internet as
being average or higher.
Participants’ weekly hours utilizing the Internet increased after
enrolling in the Internet Master program. During the pilot programming from 1996-1998
Internet Masters’ median Internet use more than tripled from 2.9 hours per week prior
to class to 9.4 hours per week during classes. Internet Masters projected that they would
have a median of 8.9 hours per week utilizing the Internet after classes concluded. This
suggests that the curriculum empowered the Internet Masters to be successful in utilizing
the Internet immediately. A principle of successful adult education is that adult learners
immediately find personal or professional application. This is certainly the case for the
Internet Master curriculum. In addition, maintaining a higher use of the Internet suggests
there is a long-term application of the curriculum, as well.
Those enrolling in the Internet Master program were people that have a
positive attitude toward school. Nearly 93% of Internet Masters reported enjoying school.
Of the 499 participants in the 20 pilot classes, 130 (26%) reported
volunteer community Internet education hours. Of those reporting hours, 118 (24% of the
Internet Masters) successfully achieved the volunteer standard of 30 hours or more of
volunteer community education.
The impact of the 130 reporting their volunteer community Internet
education hours was impressive. Nearly 7,000 volunteer hours were documented by the study.
Internet Masters were efficient, reporting preparation time to teaching time as a ratio of
nearly 1:1.
The study documented that the Internet Masters reporting volunteer hours
reached over 13,000 Missouri learners with Internet education. Internet Masters reached
more than 8,000 adults and nearly 5000 youth with quality information.
The curriculum, as utilized by teaching, was successful in increasing
scores on knowledge and use of the Internet from the beginning of class 1 to the
conclusion of class 10.
The curriculum, as utilized by teaching, was successful in increasing
scores on facilitating community education from the beginning of class 1 to the conclusion
of class 10.
Facilitating community education by Internet Masters benefited the
volunteer educator. Knowledge and use of the Internet had a statistically significant
increase for repeated measures from the conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of
volunteer community education. Volunteers that exceeded the standards for volunteer
community education had significantly higher knowledge and use of the Internet scores at
the conclusion of volunteer education than those that did not meet the volunteer community
education standard.
There were no statistically significant differences between volunteer
community education success and repeated measures of knowledge and use of the Internet and
facilitating community education from class 1 to class 10.
Facilitating community education benefited the Internet Master as well.
Confidence in facilitating community education had a statistically significant increase
from the conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer community education.
Volunteers that did not meet the standards for volunteer hours had statistically
significant lower confidence facilitating community Internet education than those that met
or exceeded the standards at the conclusion of their volunteer community education.
There was not a statistically significant difference between Learning
Type Measures and knowledge and use of the Internet from the beginning of class 1 to the
conclusion of class 10. This would suggest that the curriculum was able to successfully
meet the needs of people with a variety of learning styles.
There was not a statistically significant difference between Learning
Type Measures and facilitating community education scores from the beginning of class 1 to
the conclusion of class 10. This would suggest that the curriculum was successful in
enabling participants with a variety of learning styles to strengthen their confidence to
facilitate volunteer community education.
There was not a statistically significant difference between Learning
Type Measures and repeated measures of facilitating community education from the
conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer community education. This would
suggest that the volunteer community education experience was successful in increasing
their confidence in doing volunteer community education for all the learning types
measured.
There was not a statistically significant difference between Learning
Type Measures and repeated measures of knowledge and use of the Internet from the
conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer community education. This would
suggest that all types of learners increased their knowledge and use of the Internet by
doing volunteer community education.
There was not a statistically significant difference between
watching/doing measures and knowledge and use of the Internet from Class 1 to the
conclusion of class 10. Classes were taught with only one computer and a projection device
to enlarge the output so that all learners could see. There was not a computer lab
available for learners during the instruction. Learners, though, were expected to have
hands-on practice and assignments between Internet Master classes. This would suggest that
this was an effective teaching strategy for both people that learn best by watching and
those that learn best by doing. Extension staff and Internet Masters do not have to wait
until computer labs with Internet access are readily available to do effective adult
Internet education.
There was not a statistically significant difference between Internet
Master's watching/doing measures and repeated measures of knowledge and use of the
Internet from the conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer community
education.
There was not a statistically significant difference between Internet
Master's watching/doing scores and repeated measures of facilitating community education
from the beginning of class 1 to the conclusion of class 10, and from the conclusion of
class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer community education.
Those with below average motivation to learn about the Internet had
statistically lower scores than those with higher than average motivations to learn about
the Internet for knowledge and use of the Internet and facilitating community education
repeated measures from the beginning of class 1 to the conclusion of class 10 and from the
conclusion of class 10 to the conclusion of volunteer community education.
The Internet Master classes in 1996 and 1997 had a completion rate of
85% as measured by the number enrolling with the number completing the instrument at the
conclusion of class 10. Three hundred thirty-four of the 393 people enrolling in the
program in 1996 and 1997 completed the series of classes and filled out the instrument at
the conclusion of class 10. This is a remarkable completion rate for a series of 10
three-hour classes.
1 This
report was prepared by Cynthia E. Crawford,
Ph.D., family and consumer economics specialist with University Outreach and Extension and
Project Associate Mark Belwood. Mark’s careful attention to detail, timely work and
web site development at http://outreach.missouri.edu/saline/IMaster/
was very much appreciated and was key to the success of this work. This project was
supported in part by the University of Missouri Outreach and Extension Outreach Development Fund. |
