Impact of Instructional Activities on Students' Positivity, Participation, and Perceived Value in a Systems Analysis and Design Course

The ICAP framework classifies learning into four levels based on students' cognitive engagement with the course materials. These levels are Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive. The built-in hypothesis within the framework suggests that Interactive activities may generate better learning and engagement than Constructive activities, which may generate better outcomes than Active activities, which in turn may generate better results than Passive activities. Prior literature has focused on the impact of ICAP learning modes on student engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes. Most of these studies were conducted in either lab settings or for testing a section of the hypothesis. Although ICAP provides a baseline to determine the nature of class activities, literature is scarce on studies that use the framework. Considering this gap, for this study, we specifically selected a class where the instructor conducted lectures using active learning-based instructional activities. Considering that the instructor's perspective may differ from students' perspective, we use the validated survey instrument Student Response to Instructional Practices (StRIP) to examine how students perceive the instructional activities in class. Also, this study focuses on the impact of the Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive components of ICAP on students' positivity, participation, and the value they derive from course materials. More specifically, the study answers two research questions: 1) How did students perceive the frequency of the different instructional activities (interactive, constructive, active, or passive) in class? and 2) How did the instructional activities relate to students' positivity, participation, and perceived value of the activities? We collected the data from a systems analysis and design course at a large Midwestern University. Eighty-eight students voluntarily participated in the end-of-semester survey. Data were collected for students' responses to instruction for each activity type, the value of class activities, degree of participation, and their positivity towards the class. Using the averages of students' responses to instructional activities, we calculated the Pearson bi-variate correlations between students' perceptions about activities and their participation, attitude, and value. Additionally, we used multiple regression analysis to examine the relationship between instructional activities and students' positivity, participation, and value of learning. In this paper, we explain the results of these analyses and describe the degree to which students' perspectives resonated with the instructor's perspective. The study's findings provide unique insight into students' perceived use of the various instructional activities in the class. Also, the study provides a preliminary way to use the ICAP framework for examining the nature of class as active or passive and the effect of such class designs on students' behaviors.

I. Introduction

Following the concept of learning by doing and student-centered activities, active learning requires that students learn subject content by engaging in various activities designed to improve and facilitate comprehension [1]. In engineering education, ample evidence indicates that learning improves with student-centered learning practices and ensuring engagement using active pedagogies [2], [3]. For example, in a meta-analysis of 225 studies on instructional practices in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses, the authors reported that student performance in exams increased by 6% in the courses where active learning strategies were employed compared to traditional lecture-based instruction [1]. Similarly, educators in computer sciences have reported that students scored higher on examinations in classes that incorporate a blend of active learning activities compared to classes where no such activities were conducted [4].