Effects of Visual Reinforcement of Teleteaching on Student Performance and Perceptions

Teleteaching has become an integral part of student support system in several academic institutions endeavouring to provide quality education to students at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. A quality problem arises when teachers tend to presume “teleteaching” as an extension of classroom teaching and direct their efforts towards reproducing conventional classroom instruction. In a teleclass, the medium of instructional delivery is a technological interface: that is, a TV screen, where a learner has to interact with the interface before he /she can interact with the instructor or fellow learners. The television screen, when used as an interface in a teaching situation , has its own structural features that must be effectively used to derive the maximum benefit and to minimise any adverse effect of technology. It may be argued that a teleteclass is neither a classroom instruction nor an educational television programme but a hybrid form which must combine the presentational attributes of television and the values associated with good classroom practice. A thorough understanding is therefore needed of the ways and means for the ‘television’ interface to be exploited in the teleteaching environment. This study investigated the use of television production techniques to maximize the learning outcomes of teleteaching. The impact of variations in certain visual production techniques which can be easily incorporated in a telelecture was measured on dependent variables of academic performance and attitude to the presentation and presenter. The study showed a significant effect of visual reinforcement of telelecture using certain production techniques upon the post-test knowledge (F= 65.87, p< 0.01) and attitudes of the students. The results of this study provide empirical support for developing guidelines for the improvement of teleteaching and draw the attention of decision-makers and teachers to the importance of message design and effective presentation techniques in teleteaching.