Evaluating the Effects of Evidence-Based Instructional Practice in an Online Course: A Follow-Up Study

Evidence-based practice in special education has a broad literature base that includes a variety of active student response techniques such as response cards and guided notes. There is substantial data to support the use of these techniques across content areas in K-12 education. Additionally, there is some support for these practices at the university level. The present study was a follow up to previous experiment that investigated the effects of response cards and guided notes in a university class for pre-service special educators. The current investigation expands upon those findings by applying both guided notes and video lecture in a web-based course for training behavior analysts. An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of guided notes and video lecture on the quiz scores of masters level students taking a basic principles in behavior analysis course. Data suggests that guided notes and video lecture can be an effective tool for increasing quiz scores. Implications for practice will be discussed.