Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE July 2008 ISSN 1302-6488 Volume: 9 Number: 3 Article 8

SUITABILITY OF AIOU TELEVISION

AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENTS

Syed Abdul SIRAJ

Chairman/Associate professor

Department of Mass Communication

Allama Iqbal Open University

Islamabad, PAKISTAN

BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

According to Waniewicz (1972) in distance education, education has to be beamed at different target audiences: illiterates and school drop-outs; those who have not yet found their place in the productive life of the society, and those who are looking for improvement of already obtained qualifications; people wanting to complete primary, secondary or higher education, and those who wish to supplement their university degrees with new knowledge; those who live in underdeveloped areas which have to catch up on decades of economic and cultural development, and those of the affluent societies looking for fulfilling use of their leisure. Waniewicz (1972) explains that adult education has to be made available to people of urban and rural areas, to people living dispersed over vast territories, to men and women of different ages, races, traditions, beliefs, cultural backgrounds, and walks of life.

USE OF TELEVISION IN DISTANCE EDUCATION

Television has been characterized as being significant throughout the educational process, NIMH, 1982. It has been dubbed as “a unique potent teacher” (Liebert & Sprafkin, 1988) and identified as an educational curriculum in itself, Barry, 1993.

Many scholars recognize television as a component to formal schooling. Television can be used to facilitate the development of academic and cognitive skills.

A number of studies concluded that under certain circumstances television can increased the likelihood of subsequent social desirable behavior and the likelihood of cognitive learning occurring, NIMH, 1982; Sprafkin et al., 1975.

Television influences social behavior not only by teaching new behavior but also by contributing to children’s definition of what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate behavior, Robert, 19872. Yuki Fujiorka (1999) indicates that the frequency of television viewing stresses the importance of viewers’ cognitive activities when consuming television messages.

Television has proved more useful in distance education by bringing academic material to the students in a more direct and personal way as compare to the radio and printed material. Moreover, it gives a sense of association to the students who are widely scattered. Television is very useful where students are largely scattered in the country, Khan, (1989). Television produces better results if integrated with print and other source of information of distance education.

When television teaching was tried out at the Akita University in Japan, the result showed that the students could attend the television lecture classes at ease with little physical fatigue, Khan, (1989). Television brings the best teachers close to the students. Khan reveals that the use of television has been successful, particularly, in the distance-learning environment, where a large students’ enrollment takes place from different parts of the country. A well thought out TV programme can present the message in a way that evokes and maintains interest, stimulates effort in learning, and affects emotions and attitudes. This gives television an enormous potentiality for motivating fewer captive audiences, for evoking and sustaining interest in learning. Hornik, R.C. (1978), Television is a good medium for demonstrations since the camera can look in a microscope, peer into corners and give close-ups of things which could never be so closely or accurately observed in a normal class room situation. Egan (1991), Television appeals to the eye and ear. Therefore, a much wider range of subject can be used.

AN OVERVIEW OF AIOU AS A DISTANCE TEACHING INSTITUTION

The Allama Iqbal Open University was established under an Act of Parliament 1974 to provide part-time educational facilities through correspondence courses, tutorials, seminars, workshops, television and other mass communication media to a large section of the population who cannot leave their homes or jobs and who wish to upgrade their education or acquire knowledge for professional advancement. According to the Vice Chancellor’s Annual Report (2005-06) The University Faculty of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Sciences and the Institute of Mass Education offer over 1000 courses in 98 programs ranging from basic to doctorate and research level. Course-wise enrolments in these programs are 584404 students.

The ratio of male and female students’ enrolment is 47 and 53 percent respectively. 63% of the enrolments are coming from the province of Punjab.

The number of full-time academic staff is about 250 and part-time tutors are 17228 who meet student fortnightly in 682 study centers through out the country. The recurring and development budget of the University for the Year 2005-06 was 1134.650 million. Instructional materials are sent to the students at their home addresses or places of work. The study package includes printed materials/textbooks, audio cassettes (if available), radio and TV schedule (if applicable), tutorials, assignments question and assignments schedule, name and address of the tutor and the study center address. 682 study centers are spread throughout the country where fortnightly tutorials are arranged for the academic guidance of students. The number of full-time academic staff is about 250 and part-time tutors are 17228. The students are assessed by tutor marked assignments and final examination. The passing ratio in each component is 30% and 70% respectively. The aggregate passing percentage is 40 % (Vice Chancellor’s Annual Report, 2005-06).

STATEMENT of THE PROBLEM

This research study investigates the impact of AIOU Television on students’ performance in distance education through a relationship between broadcast day, time, and duration. The Exposure and performance relationship was determined through the hypothesis: Higher the perceived suitability of day, airing-time and duration of TV programs, better the performance

UNIVERSE/POPULATION

In this study the universe is the AIOU bachelor level students enrolled in Spring 2003 Semester for the courses “Economics” code No. 402, “Islamiyat” code No. 416, “Health and Nutrition” code No. 484 and “Food and Nutrition” code No.485. Students of these courses were selected as units of analysis for the study because these were credit courses and had the support of TV programs. Total number of students enrolled in these courses was about 7000, who were heterogeneously scattered in almost all part of the country.

Table: 1

Sample characteristics

*Residences*		*N & %*			*Male*		*Female*		*Total*
Rural		N			68		22		90
		%			75.6%		24.4%
Urban		N			79		28		107
		%			73.8%		26.2%
	Less than 25 years		N			40		17		56
			%			71.4%		29.6%
	26 to 36 years		N			87		27		114
			%			76.3%		23.7%
	37 to 45 years		N			17		6		24
			%			70.8%		28.2%
	46 to 55 years		N			3				3
	Total		N	147				50		197
			%	74.6%				25.4%

Data was collected from 197 urban and rural, male and female students of AIOU, enrolled in the spring 2003 Semester in the selected courses from the whole country. Stratified random method of sampling was adopted.

Figure: 1

Profession of students/sample

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ON THE RESULTS

Univariate analysis was used to explain the phenomena through percentage. However, the researcher concentrated to use correlation coefficient statistical procedure applying “product movement Pearson” formula to investigate the relationship on zero order “rs”. Moreover, partial correlation statistical analysis was applied to understand the influence of control variable on the zero order relationship. In this regard elaboration model of analysis procedure of Lazersfeld and Morris Rosenberg in 1968 was used to examine the zero order and partial correlations in the total samples as well as between gender groups and rural urban residence of students in order to elaborate the relationship; that is, replicate, explain, interpret, and specify it (Baby 1986, pp. 385-404).

COMPARISON of THE TEACHING MODES OF AIOU

AIOU imparts education to its BA level students through various teaching modes; viz, Textbook, TV programs, Tutorials, and Radio programs.

Textbook in Distance Educating system the world over is the main stay, which plays an important role in students’ performance in assignments and examination.

AIOU provides textbooks to students at the start of the semester, which are available with them all the time except during final examination. Television programs supplement student’s study.

Generally, there are five TV programs for each course at the BA level available to students only once at about 1.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m. on different days of the week during the semester.

Students learn about schedule of TV programs from the study package. Siraj (2003) in his PhD thesis highlights that 60 % students like to watch AIOU TV programs alone and majority of them want to submit their assignments after watching the programs. He further reveals that students find it easy to write assignments after watching TV programs.

It is quite understandable that AIOU TV programs provide better insight into the subject therefore; they not only find it easy but also prefer to write assignments after watching TV programs.

It is evident from Siraj thesis that 40 % students are interested to watch TV programs at the beginning of semester and want to have re-telecast of the program after a one-week gap.

Tutorial is a supplementary teaching support for which the University appoints relevant qualified part-time teacher (tutor) fortnightly for one and an half hour within the jurisdiction of the regional directorate after the office hours. Venue of the tutorial meeting is usually schools or colleges. Students’ attendance in the tutorial is not mandatory.

Those students who are living in the far-flung areas and who cannot attend tutorial meeting, remain in touch with the tutor through correspondence. Siraj (2003) documents that 53 percent of the AIOU students attend tutorial meetings during the semester and they occasionally discuss TV programs in the tutorials. 44% AIOU students view TV programs in order to make up deficiency for the missed tutorials (Siraj 2003).

Figure: 2 give an overall comparison of different teaching modes, i.e. textbook, TV, Tutorial and radio. Students were asked to choose the teaching mode they liked most. As evident from the Figure, (37 %) liked textbook, 27 % chose tutorial, 26 % liked TV programs, and 16 % students (only for Islamiyat course 416) favored radio programs.

These percentages confirm that textbook in the AIOU teaching system is the main source of learning. In the AIOU, textbook is the base for all examination system such as assignments and final examinations.

Television as being the third choice seems probably not coming to the expectations of students as a supplementary source of learning.

NUMBER of TV PROGRAMS WATCHED BY STUDENTS IN THE BA COURSES

Figures 2 reports percentages distribution of students’ responses regarding number of TV programs watched by them during the Semester, Spring 2003 in the BA courses; viz, “Economics” code 402, “Islamiyat” code 416, “Health and Nutrition” code 484, and “Food and Nutrition” code 485.

As evident from the figure, it is concluded that most of the students on average watched 2 to 3 TV programs in each of the four BA courses during the semester. Reasons for not watching maximum TV programs are the unsuitability of time and broadcast day being discussed in the following.

SUITABILITY OF AIOU TV BROADCAST DAY, TIME, AND DURATION

Students’ responses for suitability of TV broadcast day, time and duration reveal that majority of students (82 %) wanted to watch AIOU TV programs on Sunday. So watching TV programs on Sunday is obvious from the fact that all the working students (who are in majority) have their holiday on Sunday. Karim, et al (2001) argues that students of the Bangladesh Open University like to watch TV programs on Fridays (an official holiday in Bangladesh).

Regarding suitable of time for TV broadcast, majority of the students wanted to watch AIOU TV programs between 6 to 7 p.m. It is quite obvious that most of the students at these times return home from their offices and may find ample time to watch TV programs. Karim et al (2001) indicate that the suitable airtime for TV programs at the Open University in Bangladesh is from 4.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. On the contrary, AIOU TV programs are aired from PTV between 2 to 3 p.m.—the only time slot that PTV has allocated for AIOU. Whereas, PTV in its routine schedule allocates rest of the broadcast time to regional programs, commercials, news, dramas, prime time programs, and late night English or Urdu movies. Regarding the suitability of duration of AIOU TV programs majority of students responded in favour of one-hour. At present, duration of almost all the AIOU TV programs is about 30 minute. Therefore, the present duration of the TV programs is also not suitable, as it does not satisfy students’ needs for their study.

EXPOSURE-PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIP, CONTROLLING

FOR PERCEIVED SUITABILITY OF TRANSMISSION DAY, TIME AND DURATION

Exposure of students to AIOU TV programs and its relationship with the performance in assignments and final examination is the central theme of this research study. TV transmission day, time, and duration are the main dimensions of students’ exposure to AIOU TV programs. Majority of the students of AIOU are working people as shown in the figure 2, therefore, a very large number of students 83% have opined that Sunday is a suitable day for them to watch AIOU TV programs. Regarding airing-time, 41.1% students wanted to watch TV between 6.00 to 7.00 p.m. whereas, university airing time is between 2.00 to 3.00 p.m. During this time, majority of the students are busy at their job places. So far as duration of the TV programs is concerned, 29.4% opined that TV programs should be of one-hour duration each. (At present, duration of the TV programs ranges from 25 to 30 minutes.

Perceived suitability of TV transmission day, time, and duration were entered in that order as control variables to partial out their influence on zero order “rs” of exposure and performance. As evident from the table 2, relationship was replicated with both the performance dimensions i.e., assignments and final examination of the course Health and Nutrition code 484 and with the performance in the assignments for the course “ Food and Nutrition” code 485 after the 3^rd order partial. That is, higher the exposure to TV programmes, better the performance

Table: 2

Zero order “rs” of exposure to AIOU TV programs and performance in the Bachelor’s courses, controlling for perceived suitability of TV broadcast air day, time, and duration

Partial “rs” controlling for

Criterion Variables Zero order “rs”¹ Day ² Time³ Duration⁴

Assignment 402

Exams score 402

Assignment 416

Exams score 416

Assignment 484

Exams score 484

Assignment 485

Exams score 485

.16

.02

.14*

144

.01

144

.29*

.30*

.39**

.07

.19

.04

.17*

138

.03

138

.30*

.38**

.45**

.07

.04

.05

..10

134

-.04

134

.40**

.33*

.41**

.04

.06

-.04

.08

134

-.04

134

.39**

.34*

.41**

.01

Coefficients are significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed).

Coefficients are significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed).

Notes:

1. Zero order “rs” of exposure to TV programmes in the courses 402, 416, 484, and 485 as Ist block.

2. First order control with control being perceived suitability of transmission day as 2^nd block.

3. 2nd order control with control being perceived suitability of transmission time as 3^rd block.

4 3rd order control with control being perceived suitability of transmission duration as 4^th block.

Key:

Assignments 402: Assignments score in BA economics course

Examination 402: Examination score in BA Economics course

Assignments 416: Assignments score in BA Islamiyat course

Examination 416: Examination score in BA Islamiyat course

Assignments 484: Assignments score in BA Food and Nutrition course

Examination 484: Examination score in BA Food and Nutrition course

Assignments 485: Assignments score in BA Health and Nutrition course

Examination 485: Examination score in BA Health and Nutrition course

. However, relationship between exposure to TV programs and performance in the assignments for the course “Islamiyat” code 416 was explained away by the perceived suitability of TV transmission time. Specifically, the zero order “rs” between exposures to TV programs and performance in the assignments score of the course 416, though withstanding the perceived suitability of TV transmission day control, did not remain statistically significant after controlling for the perceived suitability of TV transmission time as being the antecedent variable.

It means that the perceived suitability of TV transmission time was an antecedent test variable that may have been causing exposure to TV program on the one hand and performance in the assignments of course 416 on the other hand

Table: 3 specify exposure-performance relationship between gender groups. Variables of perceived suitability of TV broadcast day, time, and duration were partial out.

As evident from the table, the relationship was replicated with in the assignments score of female students in the courses “Health and Nutrition” 484 and “Food and Nutrition” 485. That is, higher the exposure, better the performance of female students in the assignments scores of the courses 484 and 485.

However, exposure-performance relationship was suppressed by the broadcast airtime and duration and by all the control variables in the assignments score of male students for the courses 484 and 485 respectively (exposure leads to performance in the assignments score of male students in the course 484 in the absence of broadcast airtime and duration, and higher the exposure, better the performance in assignments score of male students in the course 485 in the absence of broadcast day, time and duration).

Whereas, the relationship was explained away with the assignment score in the course 416 and in the examination score for the course 485 of male students by the perceived suitability of airtime and by the perceived suitability of TV broadcast day respectively.

Specifically, the zero order “rs” between exposures to TV programs and performance in the assignments score of the male students in the course 416, though withstanding the perceived suitability of TV transmission day control, did not remain

Table: 3

Zero order and partial “rs” of exposure to AIOU TV programs and performance

in the Bachelor’s courses specified for sex.

Zero Partial “rs” controlling for

Criterion Variables Sex¹ Order ‘ rs’² Day³ Time⁴ Duration⁵

Assignments 402

Examination 402

Assignments 416

Examination 416

Assignments 484

Examination 484

Assignments 485

Examination 485

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

.24

.05

.04

.01

20*

.08

.10

-.15

.18

. 38*

.25

.40*

.34

.41*

.48*

-.07

.21

.16

-.01

.15

.23*

.08

.15

-.18

.18

.43*

.38*

.32

.52*

.57**

.33

-.11

-.07

.14

-.07

.22

.14

.09

.04

-.18

.54**

.43*

.24

.34

.56*

.56**

.32

-.13

-.05

.19

-.17

.13

.10

.09

.03

-.15

.56**

.45*

.43*

.51*

.52**

.18

-.06

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed)

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed)

Sample size

Zero rs n: for 402 Male 35 female 27, for 416 male 93 female 51, for 484 male 25 female 24, for 485 male 20 female 22

Partial ‘rs’: for 402 male 30, female 24, for 416 male 87 female 48, for 484 male 21 female 23, and for 485 male 18 female 20

Notes:

1. Sex: Specification for gender groups—male and female as Ist block.

2. Zero order “rs” of exposure to TV programmes in the courses 402, 416, 484, and 485 as 2nd block.

3. First order control with control being perceived suitability of transmission day as 3^rd block.

4. 2nd order control with control being perceived suitability of transmission time as 4^th block.

5. 3rd order control with control being perceived suitability of transmission duration as 5^th block.