The Effect of Educational Simulator Software’s on Learning and Remembering in University Students and Comparing it with Traditional Teaching Methods

Subject Areas : Infomartion Technology

Abolfazl Lakdashti ¹ , Reza Yousefi ² , Khadigeh Khatiri ³

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Received: 2011-12-01 Accepted : 2012-02-23 Published : 2011-04-01

Keywords: learning, Educational Simulations Software's, remembering,

Abstract :

Since the main goal of educational technology is to facilitate and improve learning performance, educational simulators can be used to achieve this goal. In this paper, the degree of effectiveness of the simulator software (a case study on Opnet, PSpice, Paket trace, and MatLab) on the learning and remembering in engineering students of non- profit Universities in Sari (2009-2010) and comparing it with traditional teaching methods was taken into consideration. The research method was a semi-experimental one with two groups of students in which posttest and pretest were used. The population was divided into experimental and control groups, the former was taught using simulator software and the latter using traditional methods. To gather data, a questionnaire was used. Research findings were analyzed through SPSS software, descriptive statistical methods such as frequency tables, percentage, mean and inferential statistical methods such as t test. The results confirmed that there was a meaningful difference between learning and remembering in teaching through educational simulators and teaching through traditional methods. In other words, education simulators had increasing and desirable effect on students learning and remembering.