Does Digital Handwriting of Instructors Using the iPad Enhance Student Learning?

Recently, projected electronic slides have been the most common tool used in classrooms. However, electronic projection slides, such as PowerPoint slides, do not provide sufficient flexibility to augment the displayed materials; therefore, instructors are not able to adjust their instruction instantly in response to the audience reaction and needs. Accordingly, many studies have suggested the use of tablet PC-based presentation tools in order to enable real-time handwritten annotations on predeveloped materials. Based on this rationale, the present study was designed in order to examine the effects of a tablet device (iPad in this study)-based instructors' digital handwriting on students' learning. Participants were 36 undergraduate students: half of the students were instructed using the typical PowerPoint-based presentation without the digital handwriting of the instructor, whereas the other half of the students were instructed using a tablet-based presentation with the instructor's digital handwriting. Results from a MANCOVA revealed a significant main effect for the presentation mode. Two follow-up ANCOVAs revealed that students in the tablet-based instructor's digital handwriting condition significantly outperformed the students in the animated PowerPoint-based presentation lecture for conceptual knowledge acquisition, despite the fact that there was no statistical difference in factual knowledge acquisition.