Can an affective tutoring system improve student learning? - BSC203_RQ2.sav (SPSS) analysis

Research Question 2

Research Question 2

RQ2: Can an affective tutoring system improve student learning?

Data set: BSC203_RQ2.sav (SPSS)

Aims

This exercise will introduce you to the statistical software package SPSS and will guide you through some analysis that may be useful in answering your research question.

You will need

The data. It is in an SPSS data file (.sav) available from the BSC203 LMS site (BSC203_RQ2.sav).

We will use the statistical software package SPSS during the class, but it is also possible to download a freeware alternative to SPSS called PSPP (https://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/). This has been purposely designed to look and feel like SPSS, so you can use it if you wish to work with the data outside the labs.

Background to SPSS

Data view: This window opens when you start an SPSS session. It displays the data file, which is structured similarly to a spreadsheet with variable names across the top and data records below.

Variable view: This window allows you to define variables and create labels for them.

SPSS statistics viewer: This window is used to display the results of all analyses.

Common analyses

• To produce descriptive statistics

  • Go to Analyze menu

    • Choose Descriptive Statistics

      • Choose Frequencies (for counts of nominal variables) or Descriptives (for means, minimums, maximum, standard deviation etc)

• To look for relationships between variables on interval or ratio scales

  • Go to Analyze menu

    • Choose Correlate

      • Choose Bivariate (ie 2 variables at a time)

• To compare groups - if dependent variable is interval or ratio scale

  • Go to Analyze menu

    • Choose Compare Means

      • Choose Independent samples t-test (if 2 groups to be compared)

      • OR choose One way ANOVA (if more than 2 groups)

• To compare groups - if dependent variable is nominal scale

  • Go to Analyze menu

    • Choose Descriptive Statistics

      • Choose Crosstabs

        • Make sure that Chi-square is selected under Statistics option.

To do

1. What percentage of participants is male and what percentage female? (Hint: use Analyze; Descriptive Statistics; Frequencies). Did more males participate or females?

2. Produce a table that provides a breakdown of gender by the age category of participants (Use Analyze, Descriptive Statistics, Crosstabs)

RQ2: Can an affective tutoring system improve student learning?

2.1 Use an independent samples t-test to compare the mean Content Knowledge of the group that used the affective tutoring system with that of the control group (Hint: use Analyze; Compare Means; Independent samples t-test).

• Which group has higher levels of Content Knowledge?

• If there is a difference, is it statistically significant (look at the p value, which is labelled as Sig. (2-tailed) in SPSS output)?

2. Do the two groups differ with respect to any of the following variables: Perceived Learning and Enjoyment? (Hint: use Analyze; Compare Means; Independent samples t-test)