The effect of computer simulation instruction on student learning

Abstract

A meta-analysis was performed to synthesize existing research comparing the effects of computer simulation instruction (CSI) versus traditional instruction (TI) on students' achievement in Taiwan. Twenty-nine studies were located from four sources, and their quantitative data was transformed into Effect Size (ES). The overall grand mean of the study-weighted ES for all 29 studies was 0.54. The results suggest that CSI is more effective than TI in Taiwan. However, only 1 (reliability of measure) of the 17 variables had significant main effect on mean ES. The results of this study suggest that CSI clearly has a more positive effect on students' learning than TI. The results also shed light on the debate between Clark and Kozma regarding learning from the media.