Online Problem Solving Using COPS Amin Jazaeri, PhD. COS Math & Science Accelerator/School of Physics, Astronomy and Computational Sciences Spring 2013

What is COPS? COPS stands for: Collaborative Online Problem Solving It is a tool to assist the instructor to track and view the dynamics of online collaborative group problem solving. It is also an aide to students to monitor individual group members activity.

Background on developing this tool Teaching undergraduate calculus based physics in LOGIC format. LO-GIC stands for: Lectures Online Group-work In Class. It is a “Hybrid” course that concentrates on problem solving as an in class activity. Most students complain about their problem solving skills, even though they understand the concepts. They don't know how to setup the problems and/or use appropriate concepts that are applicable to the problem(s) at hand.

LOGIC Model (LO Part) Started as a secondary project to a “distance” course. Each week students watch pre-recorded lecture videos available to them through Blackboard. The videos correspond to each section of a chapter (5- 9 sections per chapter) and were of various lengths, from 4 to 26 minutes. Students watched the videos and then took a “Conceptual Quiz” at the end (Before the GIC Part. The conceptual quizzes were made available through the publisher’s homework management system.

LOGIC Model (GIC Part) The face-to-face part of the course consisted of 1 hour recitation and 3 hours of “lecture” time. The recitation part was used to review the lecture material and cover the previous week’s quiz and homework. During the “lecture” part, students worked in groups (3-5 students per group) solving problems. At the end of each problem, the instructor solved the problem on the board. At the end of the session students took an in-class quiz to test them on their problem solving skills.

Additional Activities Online homework through publisher’s homework management system. Students posted questions on Blackboard under “Discussion Board” regarding homework and lecture videos. Solutions to homework and quizzes were posted weekly. In-class Exams In-class Final

Lecture Review

Taking notes

Problem Solving

Taking the Quiz

Comparison of LO-GIC to the Face- to-Face Model Exam 1: 20% Improvement Exam 2: 10% Improvement Final Exam: 5% Improvement Failure rate: 35% !!!!! Good students performed better and poor students’ performance didn’t change. Student Evaluations: 4-5 in all categories

Physics 160 Online Course Was Modeled after the LOGIC format. The in-class portion of the course was performed once a week synchronously. To ensure student engagement, pop-up quizzes were given. To assist students collaborating with each other for problem solving, Collaborative Online Problem Solving (COPS) was developed. The in-class problem solving quizzes were transitioned to on-line timed quizzes.

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Comparison of LO-GIC to the Face- to-Face Model Exam 1: 8% Improvement Exam 2: 5% Improvement Final Exam: no Improvement Failure rate: 24% (6/25) compared to (8/25) in 2010 Evaluations: Only 3 students evaluated the course (2 of them loved it, and one hated it)

Equipment

Poor Man’s Equipment

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