What course elements correlate with improvement on tests in introductory Newtonian mechanics?

Abstract

In an MIT calculus-based introductory Newtonian mechanics course, we study the effectiveness of various instructional course elements: electronic and written homeworks, collaborative group problems, and class participation. We measure effectiveness by the slope of the regression line between a student’s score (used as a proxy for participation) on a particular course element and his normalized gain on various assessment instruments. These instruments were the MIT final exam comprised mainly of multipart problems demanding analytic responses and two widely used standard physics tests that emphasize conceptual knowledge: the Force Concept Inventory and the Mechanics Baseline Test. The results show that interactive course elements are associated with higher gains on assessment instruments: doing interactive electronic homework administered by myCyberTutor correlated with large gains on the final exam producing a learning effect of 1.8±0.4 standard deviations on the final examination score. myCyberTutor and collaborative group problem solving correlated with gains on the more conceptual tests. We also report surveys that demonstrate that students have had an increasingly favorable opinion of myCyberTutor over the four terms of its use.

Who does what in a massive open online course?

“…Time represents the principal cost function for students, so it is important to study how students allocate time among available course components. 15,19 Figure 4 shows the most time is spent on lecture videos; since three to four hours per week is close to the total duration of the scheduled videos, students who rewound and reviewed the videos must compensate for those speeding up playback or omitting videos.…”

Synthesis of discipline-based education research in physics

“…Studies comparing paper-and-pencil homework to Web-based homework have found mixed results, with some studies citing no differences in performance [194] and others citing improved performance with Web-based tutors or homework systems [195][196][197][198]. Additional research results about homework are summarized in Sec.…”

“…As stated in the section on Problem Solving, there are several Web-based homework systems in physics including the "computer-assisted personalized assignment" system CAPA [120,[191][192][193], Mastering Physics, WebAssign [560], and CyberTutor [121]. Studies comparing paperand-pencil homework to Web-based homework have found mixed results, with some studies citing no differences in performance [194] and others citing improved performance with Web-based tutors or homework systems [195][196][197][198].…”

Implementing and assessing computational modeling in introductory mechanics

“…Computer usage (as opposed to computation) is ubiquitous in large introductory courses, and much work has been done to understand the role of computers in these courses [4]. In contrast, little is known about the role that computers might play as problem-solving tools in introductory courses.…”