Developmental Testing of Media and Instruction Package Distance Learning

Abstract

The efficiency testing of distance education media or distance education instructional package is a very important quality verification process for the distance education system. The efficiency testing is necessary for the prototype development of distance education media or distance education instructional package, i.e. it enables the developer to obtain the quality and efficient distance education media or distance education instructional package because the media or the instructional package has undergone the preliminary efficiency try-out and the efficiency try run; it also enables the education institution that produces the distance education media or distance education instructional package to save expenditure and time because it can obtain the prototype media that can be immediately duplicated in large numbers. In addition, the learners who learned from the media or the instructional package have changed their expected behaviors; while the teacher has gained confidence that the developed distance education media or distance education instructional package has passed the quality assurance in terms of efficiency testing. Therefore, the efficiency testing is a necessary step in the development of distance education media or distance education instructional package. The efficiency testing comprises the evaluation of learners’ behaviors while doing activities or assigned work during their learning from the media or the instructional package as known as the process evaluation, or E₁, and the evaluation of learners’ behaviors by post-learning testing as known as the product evaluation, or E₂. There are two steps of efficiency testing to evaluate the learners’ behaviors, namely, the preliminary efficiency try-out that includes the individual try-out, the small group try-out, and the field try-out; and the efficiency try run. Therefore, the efficiency testing is the quality verification tool that can reliably confirm the efficiency of the developed distance education media or distance education instructional package.