When students can choose easy, medium, or hard homework problems
Name
pritch easy hard.pdf
Size
114.06 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e0348d63d44117145fd27698a0f58f73
Author(s)
Teodorescu, Raluca E.
Seaton, Daniel
Cardamone, Carolin
Rayyan, Saif
Abbott, Jonathan E.
Barrantes, Analia
Pawl, Andrew
Pritchard, David E.
Date Issued
2012
Journal
AIP Conference Proceedings
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Teodorescu, Raluca E. et al. “When Students Can Choose Easy, Medium, or Hard Homework Problems.” 2012. 81–84. ©2012 American Institute of Physics
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We investigate student-chosen, multi-level homework in our Integrated Learning Environment for Mechanics [1] built using the LON-CAPA [2] open-source learning system. Multi-level refers to problems categorized as easy, medium, and hard. Problem levels were determined a priori based on the knowledge needed to solve them [3]. We analyze these problems using three measures: time-per-problem, LON-CAPA difficulty, and item difficulty measured by item response theory. Our analysis of student behavior in this environment suggests that time-per-problem is strongly dependent on problem category, unlike either score-based measures. We also found trends in student choice of problems, overall effort, and efficiency across the student population. Allowing students choice in problem solving seems to improve their motivation; 70% of students worked additional problems for which no credit was given.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of Digital Learning
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3679999
