Online homework impact in undergraduate mathematics and business statistics courses

This evaluation examines the impact on student success rates related to changes in instructional programmes in undergraduate mathematics and statistics courses. Success for students taking courses with a computer-based homework component was compared with success of students who took the course in prior semesters without the computer-based component. Graphical and analytical tools are used to compare results. Results come from multiple semesters of each type of homework application, for both pre-calculus algebra and business statistics courses. Students whose performance is utilised in this study are undergraduate students taking introductory level college mathematics or business statistics courses, with mostly no prior instruction at this level. Comparing the success of the intervention group with the success of the baseline control group, findings support that the students using the computer-based homework instruction are just as successful as those using the traditional method of homework instruction. Utilising the online homework applications, provide several important advantages in today’s universities, including the reduced time for faculty grading, consistency of graded assignments across all sections of a course and most importantly, immediate feedback for students.     

Are they the same? Comparing the instructional quality of online and face‐to‐face graduate education courses

As instructors adopt web‐based learning environments, they must consider how students’ evaluations of learning reflect the overall quality of instruction. Traditional course evaluations are used for faculty retention, tenure and promotion decisions, but also provide instructors with valuable information on the quality of their instruction. This study looks at response rates and compares instructional quality, using student course evaluations along with additional data from online and face‐to‐face graduate education courses, to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. A statistical analysis of students’ course evaluations showed no significant difference in instructional quality based on the format used. Together with comparisons of student work, these results provide additional evidence in support of the finding of no significant difference between formats in the area of instructional quality.     

Using conceptual questions to promote motivation and learning in physics lectures

In the last years, science courses in higher education (HE) have been facing some problems, namely the lack of students’ motivation, the number of students’ failures and drop outs, particular in physics courses. The most probable reason, which has been mentioned in current science education research in HE, is that the level of interaction between teachers and learners in formal instructional settings is very low. In this paper, we describe changes that were introduced in lectures towards the promotion of active learning and analyse its effects in the classroom environment. The introduction of conceptual questions and peer instruction seems to motivate students in the class and help them engage in the learning process. These strategies have been used in the first year of an introductory physics course for engineering students in two different Portuguese HE institutions. The data were collected through questionnaires and student interviews.     

Asynchronous Online Instruction Leads to Learning Gaps When Compared to a Flipped Classroom

With the gradual shift to online education models that has taken place in recent decades, research has sought to understand the nuances of student performance in an online model in comparison to more traditional in-person modalities. However, the effects of instructional modality have been difficult to determine given the many variables that exist in course design between these methods. In this study, we attempt to determine the efficacy of asynchronous online instruction by comparing two nearly equivalent courses. The first course was a flipped classroom, a recent and well-studied hybrid model of instruction. The second was an asynchronous fully online course that contained all the same instructional elements as the in-person course but lacked any student or instructor interaction. Student performance was tracked at both a highly-selective private institution and an open-enrollment public institution. Results show that students’ performance drops in an asynchronous online course compared to an equivalent in-person experience. Several potential hypotheses are put forth to explain a change in performance that can potentially shape the design of online instruction.

     

The effectiveness of blended online learning courses at the community college level

Whether through the use of online-only or hybrid/blended formats, colleges and universities across the country are increasingly utilizing online platforms as a medium for the delivery of instruction. At the same time, we know little about how student learning outcomes are related to students’ engagement with online instructional formats. In particular, few studies have evaluated online learning in community colleges, and fewer yet have employed an experimental or quasi-experimental design to do so. In this research, we use propensity score matching to compare learning gains between community college students enrolled in blended courses, (courses that combine online instructional delivery with traditional classroom-based instruction) with gains experienced by students receiving only classroom-based instruction. Among students enrolled in blended courses, we also consider which aspects of student use of online instructional materials are most strongly associated with student learning. While some evidence has suggested significantly poorer outcomes for community college students enrolled in online-only courses, our results suggest that students enrolled in blended courses perform similarly, if not better, relative to students in a traditional instructional setting. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

A Placement Test for Computer Science: Design,Implementation, and Analysis

An introductory CS1 course presents problems for educators and students due to students' diverse background in programming knowledge and exposure. Students who enroll in CS1 also have different expectations and motivations. Prompted by the curricular guidelines for undergraduate programmes in computer science released in 2001 by the ACM/IEEE, and driven by a departmental project to reinvent the undergraduate computer science and computer engineering curricula at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we are currently implementing a series of changes which will improve our introductory courses. One key component of our project is an online placement examination tied to the cognitive domain that assesses student knowledge and intellectual skills. Our placement test is also integrated into a comprehensive educational research design containing a pre- and posttest framework for assessing student learning and providing valuable feedback for needed instructional revisions. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of our placement exam and present an analysis of the data collected to date.     

From Gatekeeping to Engagement: A Multicontextual, Mixed Method Study of Student Academic Engagement in Introductory STEM Courses

The lack of academic engagement in introductory science courses is considered by some to be a primary reason why students switch out of science majors. This study employed a sequential, explanatory mixed methods approach to provide a richer understanding of the relationship between student engagement and introductory science instruction. Quantitative survey data were drawn from 2,873 students within 73 introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses across 15 colleges and universities, and qualitative data were collected from 41 student focus groups at eight of these institutions. The findings indicate that students tended to be more engaged in courses where the instructor consistently signaled an openness to student questions and recognizes her/his role in helping students succeed. Likewise, students who reported feeling comfortable asking questions in class, seeking out tutoring, attending supplemental instruction sessions, and collaborating with other students in the course were also more likely to be engaged. Instructional implications for improving students’ levels of academic engagement are discussed.     

Teaching the teacher: exploring STEM graduate students’ nature of science conceptions in a teaching methods course

ABSTRACT

Graduate students regularly teach undergraduate STEM courses and can positively impact students’ understanding of science. Yet little research examines graduate students’ knowledge about nature of science (NOS) or instructional strategies for teaching graduate students about NOS. This exploratory study sought to understand how a 1-credit Teaching in Higher Education course that utilised an explicit, reflective, and mixed-context approach to NOS instruction impacted STEM graduate students’ NOS conceptions and teaching intentions. Participants included 13 graduate students. Data sources included the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS-Form C) questionnaire administered pre- and post-instruction, semi-structured interviews with a subset of participants, and a NOS-related course project. Prior to instruction participants held many alternative NOS conceptions. Post-instruction, participants’ NOS conceptions improved substantially, particularly in their understandings of theories and laws and the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. All 12 participants planning to teach NOS intended to use explicit instructional approaches. A majority of participants also integrated novel ideas to their intended NOS instruction. These results suggest that a teaching methods course for graduate students with embedded NOS instruction can address alternative NOS conceptions and facilitate intended use of effective NOS instruction. Future research understanding graduate students' NOS understandings and actual NOS instruction is warranted.     

An Experimental Investigation of Videotaped Lectures in Online Courses

Lecture videos are often praised as a great medium of instruction in online education. There is a lack of research, however, that tests whether videos are superior to other teaching tools in online classes. This article examines whether videos are better than lecture notes and still slides in an online introductory political science course. The results show that lecture videos might not be the best tool of instruction for introductory students. Students in the non-video course gave higher evaluations of the instructor and the course and scored higher on exams.     

Using Biomedically Relevant Multimedia Content in an Introductory Physics Course for Life Science and Pre-health Students

We will describe a one-quarter pilot algebra-based introductory physics course for pre-health and life science majors. The course features videos with biomedical experts and cogent biomedically inspired physics content. The materials were used in a flipped classroom as well as an all-online environment where students interacted with multimedia materials online and prior to engaging in classroom activities. Pre-lecture questions on both the medical content covered in the video media and the physics concepts in the written material were designed to engage students and probe their understanding of physics. The course featured group discussion and peer-lead instruction. Following in-class instruction, students engaged with homework assignments which explore the connections of physics and the medical field in a quantitative manner. Course surveys showed a positive response by the vast majority of students. Students largely indicated that the course helped them to make a connection between physics and the biomedical field. The biomedical focus and different course format were seen as an improvement to previous traditional physics instruction.     

Evaluation of the effectiveness of remedial reading courses at community colleges

Limited research is available on the effectiveness of remedial college courses. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of two instructional approaches for developmental reading courses at a community college in the southwestern United States. The instructional approaches were traditional textbook-based instruction and strategic-reading instruction. The sample consisted of 64 participants. Half (n = 32) of the participants were in the control group (n = 32) and received traditional textbook-based instruction; the other half (n = 32) were in the experimental group and received strategic-reading instruction. All participants completed the Nelson-Denny Reading Form G at the beginning of the semester and then again 12 weeks later, at the end of the semester. The data were then statistically analyzed to identify any relationships between the type of instruction and the differences between the students’ pretest and posttest scores. The null hypotheses for H1 and H2 were rejected because the results of the paired t tests indicated that both traditional textbook-based instruction and strategic-reading instruction have a statistically significant positive effect on students’ performance on the test. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether the pretest/posttest difference scores varied based on the type of instruction. The findings showed that both methods of instruction were equally effective in improving the reading comprehension skills of community college students in a developmental reading course. Based on the findings, community college leaders are encouraged to assess the effectiveness of the instructional methods used in developmental courses to ensure at-risk community college students are receiving the most beneficial instruction.     

Traversing the Divide Between High School Science Students and Sophisticated Nature of Science Understandings: A Multi-pronged Approach

This study investigated the effects of a multi-pronged approach of increasing the nature of science (NOS) understandings of high school science students. The participants consist of 63 high school students: 31 in the intervention group and 32 in the control group. Explicit/reflective NOS instruction was imbedded within authentic inquiry experiences and supported by online discussions. The students in the intervention group were prompted to engage in various discussions focusing on essential tenets of NOS in an online environment that assured student confidentiality. NOS views were assessed through multiple data sources including pre- and post-intervention questionnaires as well as students’ responses to online discussion prompts. Results show that the instructional intervention used in this study which combined explicit/reflective NOS instruction with intense inquiry exposure along with ample reflective opportunities in an anonymous online discussion format led to positive learning gains in participants’ understanding the NOS aspects assessed. Implications for enhancing data collection with high school students and for promising professional development opportunities for science educators are discussed.     

Enhancing concept comprehension in a web-based course using a framework integrating the learning cycle with variation theory

Concept comprehension is an important foundation for more complex thoughts. To enhance concept comprehension, teachers of traditional classrooms have been using instructional strategies and specific course designs, which have been proven effective. It initiates a hypothesis that integrating instructional strategies in the course designs of an e-learning system would improve the effectiveness of concept comprehension. The purpose of this study is to propose a framework that integrates the learning cycle with variation theory in the course design of a web-based e-learning system to prove the hypothesis. A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design is employed to test whether the framework is feasible. Two types of web-based courses are designed for the experiments: a course designed according to a science textbook and another course designed using the framework. The participants in this study were 120 fifth-grade students in Taiwan. The results of the experiments show that the average scores of the experimental group, using the course designed with the framework, are significantly higher than that of the control group, using the course designed without any instructional strategy, on comprehension of course concepts. This confirms that the coherent, explicit and systematic framework is feasible for designing web-based e-learning courses for effectively enhancing concept comprehension as well as the evidence to prove the hypothesis.     

Chickering's Seven Principles of Good Practice: Student Attrition in Community College Online Courses

As online enrollments escalate, so does concern about student attrition rates. There is an abundance of literature addressing student success in online courses, particularly using constructivist learning theories to create engaging learning experiences. Also emerging from the literature is the Seven principles of good instructional practice by Checkering and Gamson as an accepted rubric for evaluating effective online instruction. This study focused on whether the use of instructional strategies as measured by the seven principles had an effect on student attrition rates in online courses. Full and part-time faculty at three community colleges in Virginia who taught online course(s) in the last three semesters completed an online survey to determine the extent to which they used instructional strategies reflecting the constructivist-based seven principles in their online courses. Scores from the survey were then compared to the attrition rates in their courses. Results indicated both groups strongly used instructional strategies reflecting the seven principles of good practice in their online courses with full-time faculty scores ranging a bit higher. When the results for the principles were examined individually rather than as a set, both groups scored lower on principles reflecting innovative instructional strategies. No relation between the extent to which faculty reported using those instructional strategies and student success as measured by attrition rates were found. However, a moderate relation was found with the third principle, “encourage active learning.” This indicated that faculty who made strides toward actively engaging students found some success in reducing student attrition.     

Course Design,Quality Matters Training,and Student Outcomes

ABSTRACT

North Carolina Central University (NCCU) recognized the need to address the increasing rates of Ds, Fs, and Withdrawal by students matriculating in online courses. Led by two science faculty, a faculty learning community in partnership with the NCCU Division of Extended Studies was created to assess online science course offerings and instruction. Faculty within this learning community completed the Quality Matters (QM) “Applying the Quality Matters Rubric” course. This online training course, coupled with services provided by the NCCU Division of Extended Studies, offered the faculty learning community a variety of pedagogical strategies to meet their instructional needs. All faculty participating in this learning community completed the online training course and all faculty indicated that they implemented changes in their subsequent online course offerings. This article describes the impact of that training and the application of quality course design standards in the Quality Matters Rubric on the design and student outcomes for an Introductory Biology course over four terms. As faculty learning communities are broadly utilized, it is anticipated that this article may present an effective strategy to increase the quality and quantity of online science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses at similar institutions.     

Repeating Knowledge Application Practice to Improve Student Performance in a Large,Introductory Science Course

There is a tendency for lecture-based instruction in large introductory science courses to strongly focus on the delivery of discipline-specific technical terminology and fundamental concepts, sometimes to the detriment of opportunities for application of learned knowledge in evidence-based critical-thinking activities. We sought to improve student performance on evidence-based critical-thinking tasks through the implementation of peer learning and problem-based learning tutorial activities. Small-group discussions and associated learning activities were used to facilitate deeper learning through the application of new knowledge. Student performance was assessed using critical-thinking essay assignments and a final course exam, and student satisfaction with tutorial activities was monitored using online surveys. Overall, students expressed satisfaction with the small-group-discussion-based tutorial activities (mean score 7.5/10). Improved critical thinking was evidenced by improved student performance on essay assignments during the semester, as well as a 25% increase in mean student scores on the final course exam compared to previous years. These results demonstrate that repeated knowledge application practice can improve student learning in large introductory-level science courses.     

Impact of Personality on Choice of Instructional Delivery and Students’ Performance

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to investigate how college students’ personality characteristics relate to their choice of instructional delivery (online or face-to-face) and whether this choice mediates the relationship between personality and academic performance. One hundred eighty-eight undergraduate students were given a choice between taking the same general education course online or face-to-face. Students completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) upon the conclusion of this course. Using a Bayesian regression course modeling framework, we found that Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were related to the choice of instructional delivery. Students scoring higher on Conscientiousness and lower on Agreeableness tended to choose the online environment. Conscientiousness also was a direct predictor of academic achievement regardless of the course environment. These results suggest that in order to find the best fit between student and the learning environment, it is important to identify personality characteristics indicative of success in online and traditional face-to-face courses to help students to become more efficient learners and assist faculty in designing quality courses to meet students’ needs.     

Preparing Students to Take Online Interactive Courses

Electronic communication and World Wide Web skill levels for graduate students entering a Master of Science in Education degree program with online components were examined before and after completion of an introductory technology skills course. Results indicated that students can identify their weaknesses and can subsequently develop skills for using electronic communication, the World Wide Web, and related activities through an online course designed to prepare them for success in taking subsequent online courses. The findings support views that Web-based courses require some skills that may be new for the student, and that students will require varying degrees of instruction in how to deal with technology-based learning.     

A Genetically Optimized Predictive System for Success in General Chemistry Using a Diagnostic Algebra Test

In higher education, many high-enrollment introductory courses have evolved into “gatekeeper” courses due to their high failure rates. These courses prevent many students from attaining their educational goals and often become graduation roadblocks. At the authors’ home institution, general chemistry has become a gatekeeper course in which approximately 25% of students do not pass. This failure rate in chemistry is common, and often higher, at many other institutions of higher education, and mathematical deficiencies are perceived to be a large contributing factor. This paper details the development of a highly accurate predictive system that identifies students at the beginning of the semester who are “at-risk” for earning a grade of C- or below in chemistry. The predictive accuracy of this system is maximized by using a genetically optimized neural network to analyze the results of a diagnostic algebra test designed for a specific population. Once at-risk students have been identified, they can be helped to improve their chances of success using techniques such as concurrent support courses, online tutorials, “just-in-time” instructional aides, study skills, motivational interviewing, and/or peer mentoring.