Assessing the One-Lecture-One-Test Learning Model in Undergraduate Journalism Program Using Cohort Design

The one-lecture-one-test (OLOT) is a learning model that compels students to write a short test after every lecture for a score that counts toward the continuous assessment and the overall grade. This is different from the traditional system in most universities which allows only two or three tests or assignments. In spite of the accolades for better grades, higher lecture attendance, higher concentration, interest and participation in class which it received when the findings from a one-year survey were presented to the participants at a notable international conference, the model still lacks prominence among lecturers. The unimpressive visibility, according to critics, is on the grounds that the technique would have to be investigated in a longitudinal study to determine its reliability as a learning system. This article presents the reports of a cohort study of journalism teaching over a period of three academic sessions. Improvements in students’ performance in the foregoing parameters were visible and consistent with the one-year investigation. Unimpressively, however, it turned out that lack of precision in grading constituted a vulnerable point that the adopters of the system would have to tackle in order to further make the system attractive.