Remote site instruction in physics: a test of the effectiveness of a new teaching technology

This study tested the effectiveness of a remote site instructional system utilizing audio-graphic teleconferencing technology. The subject matter taught was high school level physics. The test site was Bountiful High School in Bountiful, Utah. The study consisted of a treatment-control group comparison in which the treatment group (9 males and 2 females) received the remotely delivered instruction and the control group (14 males and 3 females) received traditional high school physics instruction. The dependent variable was performance on physics tests that were administered periodically during the intervention period. A two-step hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze the data. During the first step, the experimental and control groups were equated for pre-existing differences in student ability. During the second step, the two groups were tested for differences in performance due to the experimental manipulation. No significant differences in performance were found. The results lead us to believe that audio-graphic teleconferencing is an effective medium for delivering remote instruction.