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Research on non-cognitive factors has shown that persistence in the face of challenges plays an important role in learning. However, recent work on wheel-spinning, a type of unproductive persistence where students spend too much time struggling without achieving mastery of skills, show that not all persistence is uniformly beneficial for learning. For this reason, it becomes increasingly pertinent to identify the key differences between unproductive and productive persistence toward informing interventions in computer-based learning environments. In this study, we use a classification model to distinguish between productive persistence and wheel-spinning in ASSISTments, an online math learning platform. Our results indicate that there are two types of students who wheel-spin: first, students who do not request any hints in at least one problem but request more than one bottom-out hint across any 8 problems in the problem set; second, students who never request two or more bottom out hints across any 8 problems, do not request any hints in at least one problem, but who engage in relatively short delays between solving problems of the same skill. These findings suggest that encouraging students to both engage in spaced practice and use bottom-out hints sparingly is likely helpful for reducing their wheel-spinning and improving learning. These findings also provide insight on when students are struggling and how to make students' persistence more productive.
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Automated Analysis of Student Verbalizations in Online Learning Environments
Online learning has become desirable for many students. In the U.S., more than one-third of all enrolled students participate in at least one online course [13]. The most effective online learning environments allow students to work at their own pace, from any location, at any time, and to receive automated feedback. In light of these benefits and the likely protracted impact of the current public health crisis, the trend toward online learning is likely to increase.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1915088
- PAR ID:
- 10357272
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Emerging Technologies for Education. SETE 2021
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in nearly all universities transitioning their in-person courses to online instruction. Recent work from our research team conducted in Spring 2020 established that the immediate transition to online learning presented novel challenges for students with disabilities: students were unable to access previously established accommodations and there was a lack of information from Disability Resource Centers (DRCs) about adapting accommodations to online environments. In this study, we aimed to determine the extent to which these issues still were present 1 year later. In Spring 2021, we conducted a survey of 114 students with disabilities who were registered with the DRC and taking online science courses at a public research-intensive institution. We used our previous interviews with students to develop closed- and open-ended questions to assess the extent to which students with disabilities were being properly accommodated in their courses, document any new accommodations they were using, and elicit any recommendations they had for improving their experiences in online science courses. We used logistic regression to analyze the closed-ended data and inductive coding to analyze the open-ended data. We found that more than half of students with disabilities reported not being properly accommodated, and this was more likely to be reported by students who experienced new challenges related to online learning. When students were asked what accommodations they would have wanted, students often described accommodations that were being offered to some students but were not universally implemented. This study summarizes recommendations for making online science learning environments more inclusive for students with disabilities.more » « less
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Due to ethical and practical concerns, no large representative randomized controlled trials comparing outcomes in fully online versus face-to-face courses have occurred. However, the circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity to explore hypotheses about the relationship between the online course medium and course outcomes. The City University of New York (CUNY) was one of the first large U.S. public universities to shift all courses completely online. This study used a dataset consisting of all courses taken by students enrolled in either fall 2019 or spring 2020 at any of the two and four-year colleges of CUNY to determine whether taking online courses affect course completion rates. Findings show that both two- and four-year colleges, students were significantly less likely to successfully complete fully online than traditional mode courses. Moreover, within the same term, students were less likely to successfully complete courses that they originally chose to take fully online than in-person, regardless of whether those courses were then subsequently taught fully online or not. Students were also significantly more likely to take elective courses fully online and significantly more likely to take major requirements as traditional courses; they were roughly equally likely to take distributional requirements as fully online or traditional courses. Courses that were either elective or distributional requirements had significantly lower rates of successful completion than major requirement courses.more » « less
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Online modes of teaching and learning have gained increased attention following the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in education delivery trends likely to continue for the foreseeable future. It is therefore critical to understand the implications for student learning outcomes and their interest in or affinity towards the subject, particularly in water science classes, where educators have traditionally employed hands-on outdoor activities that are difficult to replicate online. In this study, we share our experiences adapting a field-based laboratory activity on groundwater to accommodate more than 700 students in our largest-enrollment general education course during the pandemic. As part of our adaptation strategy, we offered two versions of the same exercise, one in-person at the Mirror Lake Water Science Learning Laboratory, located on Ohio State University’s main campus, and one online. Although outdoor lab facilities have been used by universities since at least the 1970s, this research is novel in that 1) it considers not only student achievement but also affinity for the subject, 2) it is the first of its kind on The Ohio State University’s main campus, and 3) it was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when most university classes were unable to take traditional field trips. We used laboratory grades and a survey to assess differences in student learning and affinity outcomes for in-person and online exercises. Students who completed the in-person exercise earned better scores than their online peers. For example, in Fall 2021, the median lab score for the in-person group was 97.8%, compared to 91.7% for the online group. The in-person group also reported a significant ( p < 0.05) increase in how much they enjoyed learning about water, while online students reported a significant decrease. Online students also reported a significant decrease in how likely they would be to take another class in water or earth sciences. It is unclear whether the in-person exercise had better learning and affinity outcomes because of the hands-on, outdoor qualities of the lab or because the format allowed greater interaction among peers and teaching instructors (TAs). To mitigate disparities in student learning outcomes between the online and in-person course delivery, instructors will implement future changes to the online version of the lab to enhance interactions among students and TAs.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3439660
