The influence of instructional technology use on students’ affect: Do course designs and biological sex make a difference?

Abstract

This study examined the impact that instructional technology use, course design, and instructor and student sex differences have on students’ initial perceptions of affect toward the course and the instructor. Participants included 864 students who were randomly assigned to read one of 16 scenarios that manipulated the amount of instructional technology use across two types of courses with either male or female instructors. A factorial analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for technology use on students’ initial affect, as well as a significant two‐way interaction effect of technology use by student sex. Planned cell comparisons revealed that technology use has primarily a curvilinear effect, whereby students in the minimal and moderate technology use conditions reported higher levels of initial affect than students in the no technology and complete technology conditions. For the two‐way interaction effect, planned cell comparisons revealed that female students reported higher levels of affect as the amount of technology use increased from minimal to moderate amounts of use, whereas male students reported lower levels of affect across the same two conditions. Overall, the results highlight the importance of using instructional technology within a framework of pedagogical methods designed to achieve specific instructional objectives.