An Experimental Study on the Effectiveness of Students’ Learning in Scientific Courses through Constructive Alignment—A Case Study from an MIS Course

Abstract

This study aimed to explore students’ effectiveness in scientific courses that have adopted the framework of constructive alignment. The researchers conducted an experimental study in the education sector to compare two different teaching models—traditional and following constructive alignment—and used statistical tools to analyse differences in students’ learning effectiveness. The course “Management Information System” (MIS) was specifically chosen to investigate how constructive alignment initiatives used in the course influenced students’ learning effectiveness. Two groups of students were selected as the control group and the experimental group, respectively. In the experimental group, the intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment tasks were always aligned by the instructor. The learning effectiveness of the two groups was evaluated by the Course Experience Questionnaire Survey and academic grades. After this study, it was found that significant improvement—in terms of students’ learning experience scores and academic grades—was seen in the experimental group compared with the control group. This study has further verified that implementing a constructive alignment template can significantly improve students’ learning effectiveness in scientific courses, hence providing theoretical and practical references for teaching and learning in scientific courses.