Qualitative Research Studies

Results Overview

The purpose of this research is to determine if there is a link between supplemental media from Khan Academy and student academic performance. Furthermore, the research also seeks to determine the attitudes of teachers and students towards toward Khan Academy, particularly during the intervention period. The results are parsed and analyzed with the intention of providing clear conclusions as well as reasonable answers to research questions. First, the general findings of the data will be presented. These will be general conclusions derived from detailed analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data. The detailed analysis of the quantitative data is presented in terms of increasing complexity beginning with averages

Quantitative Student Assessment Data. Student quantitative assessment data is broken into seven sections to most clearly present the data. Beginning with the most general conclusions and ending with specific hypothesis testing. Mean average. Both the control group and intervention group of students had initial baseline assessments in the failing range, though this was not surprising considering the intervention specifically measured students that had not yet begun algebra instruction and likely only had pre-algebra instruction to guide them in completing the assessments. The largest improvement in test scores for both groups was between the baseline assessment test and the first test after the initial block of algebra instruction. Between the baseline and first test the control group seemed to improve more, though this improvement could be explained by regression to the mean considering the control group had lower initial scores. After the initial improvement, the intervention group improved more and improved more consistently than the control group. At the last data point, two weeks after the intervention, the intervention group had an average score approximately three and a half points higher than the control group (see Figure

The standard deviation of scores decreased across both groups during the intervention, but spiked at the post-test. Given that the post-test was given two weeks after the end of the intervention, it seems plausible that increased algebra ability and increased familiarity with the assessment test caused the difference between the best and worse scores to decrease, but that this effect reversed after two weeks passed with no algebra instruction. It was also discovered through discussion with participating students that many of the highest scoring students continued using Khan Academy of their own volition outside of