Previous research has shown that students form fragmented understandings about variability even after instruction and that these primitive notions function as obstacles to a robust understanding of variability. To investigate the effect of disruptions to students' primitive notions of variability, we examined undergraduate students' reasoning…

Background: Multimedia creation and curation for assignments have the potential to engage students in deeper learning. Objective: This study explored whether the same homework assignments delivered in paper versus multimedia format resulted in different student experiences. Method: Introductory psychology students submitted either traditional…

We examine the effectiveness of a planning prompt intervention to reduce procrastination on online homework for college students. The intervention asked students to indicate their intention to earn small amounts of extra credit for completing assignments earlier and form a plan to realize their intentions. Students' learning behavior is measured…

The use of flipped classrooms has been gaining popularity across various disciplines as student-centered active learning pedagogy. In this study, an introductory organic chemistry course was delivered through flipped classroom methodologies, incorporating blended learning to deliver content and group work in the classroom. The learning experiences…

In a Fall 2017 introductory course in Environmental Geology, homework assignments alternated between traditional textbook chapters in an electronic format and adaptive learning platform (ALP) modules on the Smart Sparrow (www.smartsparrow.com) platform to assess student preference for and satisfaction with either modality. Few studies have…

In this mixed-methods study of large enrollment introductory physics service courses, I investigated students' perception and use of online education resources as supplements to course-provided materials and activities. Specifically, I focused on the increasing use of popular free online media resources such as YouTube and Khan Academy, and…

The typical introductory physics lecture requires students to consolidate and assimilate a large quantity of complex information that is often novel to them. This can leave students overwhelmed, slow the pace of their learning, and lower their motivation. We find that carefully designed multimedia summaries in the form of one-minute videos and…

Online software systems are extensively used to give students practice on course content, especially in mathematics and physics courses. They offer instant feedback, and several of these systems are open source or very economical compared with hiring graders for traditional paper-and-pencil-based homework (PPH). In this article, the authors…

We present an analysis on the differential effects of incentivizing homework in an introductory mathematics course at the United States Military Academy. We found that including homework as part of a student's overall course average (incentive) led to a significantly higher performance (achievement) on homework assignments. However, doing homework…

Homework is an important out-of-class activity, crucial to student success in engineering courses. However, in a first-semester freshman engineering course, approximately one-fourth of students were completing less than 80% of the homework. The purpose of this study was to examine students' attribution of their low completion of homework and…

Introductory and remedial courses in college mathematics often serve as a gateway to student success. However, these university courses have seen little innovation despite historically low success rates. We sought to address deficits of the traditional lecture model and enhance student learning in an introductory college algebra course through the…

The problem of Computer Science students' cheating in their homework assignments so far has been handled mainly through administrative punishment of the cheaters. The success of such an approach depends to a large degree on the ability of the instructor to recognize the fact of cheating, which is a complicated task. With a large number of students…

Encouraged by positive clinical results at the University of Illinois, mastery-style homework was integrated into a large semester-long preparatory physics course via an online homework system that used narrated animated video solutions as correctives. This paper discusses the impact and evolution of the homework in its first two years. The first…

Many large-lecture introductory science courses for nonscience majors do not have a lab component and hence do not provide much opportunity for students to engage in the practice of science. I have developed a new instructional activity called Dorm Room Labs that enables students to conduct hands-on activities as homework (or dorm room work) to…

This paper addresses the use of video for a flipped classroom with a case study. The instructor makes the lecture videos available to the students prior to class, and utilizes the class time for discussion and student questions. We evaluate this approach with an introductory psychology course that was taught repeatedly in a traditional way and as…