Date of Award:

5-1970

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Communication Studies and Philosophy

Department name when degree awarded

Speech

Committee Chair(s)

Burrell F. Hansen

Committee

Burrell F. Hansen

Committee

David R. Stone

Committee

Don Smellie

Committee

Lester C. Essig

Abstract

This thesis presents an evaluation of instructional television as used in four courses at Utah State University. The study is divided into four parts: first, student attitudes and reactions; second, faculty attitudes and reactions; third, the costs involved for the individual faculty members concerned, the academic department, the Radio-Television department, and the University as a whole; and fourth, recommendations concerning the future use of instructional television at Utah State University.

The four courses involved in this study were basic introductory courses in Political Science, English, Sociology, and Music.

The investigator found that student attitudes and reactions varied with each course. The students in Political Science and English were generally uncertain in their attitude toward the use of television, with approximately equal numbers for and against. The students in Sociology and Music were very much in favor of the use of television.

The attitudes of the faculty members associated with this project ranged from very negative to very positive. The study indicated that those instructors who were highly motivated and enthusiastic before actually becoming involved with instructional television tended to remain so throughout. Those instructors who were skeptical and hesitant beforehand also retained their attitudes.

The third part of this study dealing with costs was divided into six areas for the Political Science and English courses: production costs, recording costs, instructional costs, utilization costs, cost for additional use, and cost per student credit unit for one academic year. In the cases of Sociology and Music only the production, recording and instructional costs were computed.

As a result of this study, this researcher recommends the delegation of more authority to the television personnel in order that they may have a voice in the utilization process of the television courses produced.

A second recommendation is that of initiating a two-phase in-service training program to assist the classroom teacher in adjusting to his new role, and to train the television teacher in methods of using instructional television.

Finally, the need to have available adequate facilities for the utilization processes has become apparent during the course of this study. Television cannot prove to be a satisfactory medium of instruction if it must be satisfied with poor lighting conditions, excessive noise levels, and an undesirable choice of hours during which to offer classes.

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