IEOM Conference

The effects of noise interruptions occurring in the lecturer’s window during an online lecture via Zoom on comprehension of learned material and the students’ perceptions of learning

The Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Ashdod campus opened a Student Branch at the IEOM (Industrial Engineering and Operations Management) Society (https://ieomsociet.org/ieom/). Masters’ degree student Adva Epstein conducted a research final project that was presented and won third place in the Society’s 2023 Conference. The research supervisors were Dr. Adi Katz and Dr. Sagit Kedem-Yemini of Sapir College. Ms. Yana Sophia supported all aspects of running the experiment using an eye tracker device.

Epstein, A., Kedem-Yemini, S., Katz, A. 2023 Examining the Influence of Interruptions in Online Learning on Student's Perceptions and Comprehension, the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, IEOM Society International, Manila, Philippines, March 7-9, Online Streaming

The purpose of the study was to examine the manner in which background interruptions occurring in the lecturer’s window during an online lecture via Zoom affect the comprehension of the learned material and students’ perceptions of learning. Experiment participants included 45 subjects who separately watched a recorded lecture on “process mining”. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of two experiment groups – one group watched the lecture with background interruptions, and the other watched the lecture without background interruptions. While watching the lecture, the participants’ eye movements were tracked using an eye tracker device, and big data was collected from the device for each participant. In addition to the device data, subjects were asked to answer two questionnaires: a questionnaire that tested their comprehension of the material learned in the lecture, and a questionnaire that measured various perceptions of each participant’s subjective experience (of learning, the subject, the lecturer, the presentation etc.). Among the results of the study, it was found that students who watched the lecture without interruptions demonstrated better comprehension of the content that had interruptions occur in the lecture while it was being covered, in comparison to those students who watched the same lecture with interruptions. Additionally, it was found that students who watched the lecture without interruptions had more positive subjective perceptions (regarding the learned subject, the manner it was conveyed, the lecturer etc.) compared to those who watched it with interruptions.

Adva Epstein presents the study and demonstrates the visualization generated by the eye tracker for a experiment participant

Adva Epstein – Third-place winner of the Outstanding Articles Contest at the IEOM 2023 conference in the Philippines.