Search for: All records

The Success and Retention of Students using Multiple-Attempt Testing in Fundamental Engineering Courses: Dynamics and Thermodynamics First name Last name1, First name Last name 1, First name Last name 2, First name Last name 2, First name Last name 3, and First name Last name 1 1Department One 2Department two 3Department Three University Abstract The notion behind Multiple-Attempt Testing continues to be investigated for its benefits in terms of students’ overall success and their retention in fundamental engineering courses. Two engineering courses were delivered in mixed-mode in Spring 2023 (post-COVID): Dynamics and Thermodynamics, whose results were compared to the same courses given in the same semester, four years earlier, delivered in mixed-mode in Spring 2019 (pre-COVID). All four courses were large classes ranging from 167 students for Spring 2023 in Dynamics to 267 students in Thermodynamics for the same Spring 2023 semester. For both courses, there were three tests during the semester. In Spring 2019, students were given a five-day window to conduct their tests in the testing center (TC). Facilitated by the Learning Management System (LMS), the grades were instantly uploaded into CANVAS. Once the test closed, students were allowed to see their work with a teaching-assistant to learn from mistakes and claim some partial credit where possible. However, in Spring 2023, for both courses, students were given three tests during the semester with three attempts each, as well as a make-up final cumulative examination, also with three attempts, for those who wanted to improve their grades. No partial credit was given in any attempt of any test or the final examination. Each attempt was open for two days and the students were allowed to see their tests after each attempt, learn from mistakes, and prepare better for the next attempt. The effectiveness of this testing-interwoven-learning method lies in the fact that students are comfortable and less anxious to do their tests knowing they have other chances, can learn from their mistakes and focus their attention on their weaknesses, enhance their knowledge, and do better in the next attempt. With this self-paced method students learn a lot on their own given the amount of videos provided them. The study shows a substantial decrease in the failure rate, 65% and the overall DWF decreased by more than 40% in both courses. This suggests students aspired to do well in every attempt, or even if they failed all three tests, they would still have a final examination that could save them, which reduced the overall DWF. A survey was also conducted, revealing more than 70% of students preferred this method of testing and learning in future courses. 

Curricula enhanced through the use of digital games can benefit students in their interest and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) concepts. Elementary teachers’ likelihood to embrace and use game-enhanced instructional approaches with integrity in mathematics has not been extensively studied. In this study, a sequential mixed methods design was employed to investigate the feasibility of a game-enhanced supplemental fraction curriculum in elementary classrooms, including how teachers implemented the curriculum, their perspectives and experiences as they used it, and their students’ resulting fraction learning and STEM interest. Teachers implemented the supplemental curriculum with varying adherence but had common experiences throughout their implementation. Teachers expressed experiences related to (1) time, (2) curriculum being too different, and (3) too difficult for students. Their strategies to handle those phenomena varied. Teachers that demonstrated higher adherence to the game-enhanced supplemental fraction curriculum had students that displayed higher STEM interest and fraction learning. While this study helps to better understand elementary teachers’ experiences with game-enhanced mathematics curricula, implications for further research and program development are also discussed.

 

People with disabilities are underrepresented in STEM as well as information, communication, and technology (ICT) careers. The underrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in STEM may reflect systemic issues of access. Curricular materials that allow students to demonstrate their current fraction knowledge through multiple means and provide opportunities to share and explain their thinking with others may address issues of access students face in elementary school. In this study, we employed a sequential mixed-methods design to investigate how game-enhanced fraction intervention impacts students’ fraction knowledge, engagement, and STEM interests. Quantitative results revealed statistically significant effects of the program on students’ fraction understanding and engagement but not their STEM interest. Qualitative analyses revealed three themes—(1) Accessible, Enjoyable Learning, (2) Can’t Relate, and (3) Dreaming Bigger—that provided contextual backing for the quantitative results. Implications for future research and development are shared.

 

Success in online and blended courses requires engaging in self-regulated learning (SRL), especially for challenging STEM disciplines, such as physics. This involves students planning how they will navigate course assignments and activities, setting goals for completion, monitoring their progress and content understanding, and reflecting on how they completed each assignment. Based on Winne & Hadwin’s COPES model, SRL is a series of events that temporally unfold during learning, impacted by changing internal and external factors, such as goal orientation and content difficulty. Thus, as goal orientation and content difficulty change throughout a course, so might students’ use of SRL processes. This paper studies how students’ SRL behavior and achievement goal orientation change over time in a large ( N  = 250) college introductory level physics course taught online. Students’ achievement goal orientation was measured by repeated administration of the achievement goals questionnaire-revised (AGQ-R). Students’ SRL behavior was measured by analyzing their clickstream event traces interacting with online learning modules via a combination of trace clustering and process mining. Event traces were first divided into groups similar in nature using agglomerative clustering, with similarity between traces determined based on a set of derived characteristics most reflective of students’ SRL processes. We then generated causal nets for each cluster of traces via process mining and interpreted the underlying behavior and strategy of each causal net according to the COPES SRL framework. We then measured the frequency at which students adopted each causal net and assessed whether the adoption of different causal nets was associated with responses to the AGQ-R. By repeating the analysis for three sets of online learning modules assigned at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester, we examined how the frequency of each causal net changed over time, and how the change correlated with changes to the AGQ-R responses. Results have implications for measuring the temporal nature of SRL during online learning, as well as the factors impacting the use of SRL processes in an online physics course. Results also provide guidance for developing online instructional materials that foster effective SRL for students with different motivational profiles.