1. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 1 Check it out at: http://webug.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/ie.html Can Students Learn Concept-Based Problem Solving on the Web? Mats Selen July 13, 2001 Cottrell Scholars Meeting

2. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 2 Overview l The Problem: çWhen given a quantitative physics problem, most students immediately resort to an “equation manipulation” strategy to solve the problem. çToo many students see “concepts” and “calculations” as two totally separate and unrelated activities. »When given a quantitative question, most students will NOT think about the CONCEPTS that are involved. »When given a qualitative question, most students will never consider writing down an appropriate equation… math is NOT seen as a TOOL l Our Approach: çCreate web-based instructional materials that will promote “concept-based” problem solving among our introductory students. »Interactive Examples (work by Gary Gladding) !

3. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 3 Why we should stress concepts: On this exam, the conceptual problems were worth about 30% of the total. Physics 101 Midterm Exam 1, Spring 2000

4. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 4 Traditional Homework:

5. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 5 Limited help available…

6. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 6 Interactive Examples (Socratic Dialogue) when students click in “Help”… Start by asking a numeric question (usually multi-step)

7. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 7 …”Help” results in a discussion followed by some multiple-choice questions that lead them toward the answer…

8. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 8 This dialogue can take several steps…

9. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 9 …these steps are designed to teach students problem solving approaches as well as physics…

10. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 10 Eventually they get another (simpler) numeric question whose answer is needed to solve the primary numeric question.

11. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 11 Clicking on “Help” again results in a similar dialogue as the first time, although one level “deeper”. - Problems can be 4-5 levels deep - Eventually they get enough info to solve the problem.

12. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 12 Once they get right the answer And some follow-up questions They get a recap

13. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 13 Structure: l Base question is a quantitative problem (multi-step). l Students can request help which comes in the form of more questions. çQuestions for which more help is always available. çQuestions that must be answered correctly to get more help. l Students can opt to answer the base question at any time. l Eventually, enough help is given to solve the problem. l Once base question is answered correctly: çFull credit is given. çA Recap is given (Conceptual, Strategic and Quantitative Analyses). çFollow-Up Questions (optional, i.e. no credit) are asked.

14. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 14 REAL Data: Student Logs l We record all student submissions on IEs: (the conversation)

15. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 15 These data are very useful for education research: l For example, some questions we might ask ourselves are: çHow “engaged” are students by the IE’s ? çHow, exactly, are they learning? l These can be investigated by analyzing the student logs: çHow much time do students spend on the IEs? çHow well do the students do on their first response to M/C questions? çHow deep into the IE do students go?

16. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 16 How Much Time Do Students Spend on IEs? Physics 101 Physics 102

17. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 17 How Well Do Students Do on their First Response to M/C Questions? Physics 101 Physics 102

18. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 18 How Deep Do Students Go in IEs? Physics 101 Physics 102

19. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 19 Does IE Performance Correlate with Exam Performance? Compare Physics 101 Hour Exam grade with Indicators of IE participation Observe some correlation between (unclear how to interpret this). Will probably advertise this to students to encourage participation.

20. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 20Status l Algebra-based Courses at Illinois (Physics 101 and 102). çApproximately 60 IEs were used in these courses in Fall 00. çVery popular! l Used heavily in Physics 100. çRemedial class for at-risk students. çI.E. form most of the homework for this class. çSince Physics 100 has no lecture, IE’s are particularly useful since they provide some “give & take” type dialogue. l Will implement in calculus based sequence next.

21. Cottrell Meeting (July/13/01): Pg 21 What Do Students Think About IEs? l Always Very Positive çIndependent (OIR) Focus Group Study »100% of students preferred IEs to the usual computer problems »The half that do the optional follow-ups felt they gained confidence çOur End of Term Surveys »87% said that the interface was “very intuitive” or “reasonably intuitive” »How effective were IEs at helping you to develop a problem solving strategy? “very effective” (31%), “effective” (56%), “not very” (12%) çDirect Comment Facility from IE itself: »Low response, but 100% positive (very unusual for computer feedback) »“the drawn out explainations are much like a one on one learning environment and are very helpful not only in the problem but in the concepts behind it” »“if these interactive examples were not there to help me i would have gone insane trying to figure out these problems....and this makes me understand the problems much better than if i were to get help from someone in the class...i believe anyways...because this way i'm figuring it out basically on my own.…”