July 26–30, 2014
57
Monday afternoon
BA03:
1:30-3:30 p.m. A Physics MOOC That Helps Students,
Researchers, and Teachers Learn*
Panel – David E. Pritchard, MIT Room 26-241 / 77 Mass. Ave., Cambridge,
MA 02139-4307;
Kimberly R. Colvin, John Champaign, Alwina Liu, Colin Fredericks, MIT
The RELATE group (
) is now running its fourth
MOOC, 8.MReV on edX.org. Pre-post testing showed normalized gain of
0.31+/-0.02 independent of student initial skill or cohort with over 1000
receiving certificates. This and other learning correlates differently with
time spent using various available resources. Our special track for teachers
has forums on how to teach various topics, and for suggesting and vetting
external resources. Our MOOC is a “user facility” for PER researchers who
wish to run experiments using a control/experimental group protocol, or
to vet assessment instruments. Currently nine researchers are collaborating
on seven projects: three are developing or testing instruments to measure
various aspects of problem solving ability, three are developing new ways
to understand and teach problem-solving expertise, and two involve using
multi-dimensional psychometrics to discover whether actual student skills
depend more on learning objective, cognitive category, question type, or
question format. More collaborators are sought.
*Work supported by NSF, MIT, and Google.
Session BB: PER: Exploring Problem
Solving Approaches and Skills
Location: STSS 220
Sponsor: AAPT
Date: Monday, July 28
Time: 1:30–3:10 p.m.
Presider: Andrew Boudreaux
BB01:
1:30-1:40 p.m. Assessing Online Computer Coaches
for Problem Solving: Measures of Utility
Contributed – Koblar A. Jackson, Central Michigan University, Department of
Physics, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858;
Evan Frodermann, Ken Heller, Leon Hsu, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Andrew Mason, University of Central Arkansas
The Physics Education Research Group at the University of Minnesota
(UMN) is investigating the utility of a type of online computer coach to
promote learning and aid in the development of problem-solving skills
in an introductory physics course. The first version of these coaches was
used in the first semester of large calculus-based introductory mechanics
courses at UMN. The utility of the coaches depends on their ease of use
and their attractiveness to students as well as their efficacy. In this talk, we
describe the techniques used to measure the utility of the coaches when
used as a part of the introductory course. This talk will also address the
natural use of the coaches by different segments of the student popula-
tion within the class. Q. Ryan, B. Aryal, and J-L. Lin also contributed to
this work. This project was partially supported by NSF DUE-0715615 and
DUE-1226197.
BB02:
1:40-1:50 p.m. Assessing Online Computer Coaches for
Problem Solving: Educational Impact
Contributed – Evan Frodermann, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 116
Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0213;
Jennifer Docktor, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Ken Heller, Leon Hsu, Qing Ryan, University of Colorado Boulder
The Physics Education Research Group at the University of Minnesota is
developing a set of online computer coaches to aid student learning in an
introductory physics course. This talk reports on the educational impact
of implementing the first version of these coaches in the first semester of
several large calculus-based introductory mechanics courses. The talk will
also address how the results of this implementation are being used as input
to the design of the second version of these coaches. A. Mason, B. Aryal,
J-L. Lin, and K. A. Jackson also contributed to this talk. This work was
partially supported by NSF DUE-0715615 and DUE-1226197.
BB03:
1:50-2 p.m. Influence of Visual Cueing and Correctness
Feedback on Problem Solving*
Contributed – Elise Agra, Kansas State University, Department of Physics,
Manhattan, KS 66506;
Xian Wu, Mitchell Burkett, Lester C. Loschky, N. Sanjay Rebello, Kansas
State University
Research has demonstrated that using visual cues can help to direct
students’ attention to relevant areas of a diagram and facilitate problem
solving. In this study, we investigate the effect of visual cues and correct-
ness feedback in conceptual physics problems containing a diagram with
respect to the comprehension of physics concepts. Students enrolled in an
introductory mechanics course were individually interviewed. Using think-
aloud protocol, students worked through four sets of problems containing
a diagram. Each problem set contained an initial problem, six isomorphic
training problems, a near transfer problem, and a far transfer problem. The
students provided verbal responses to the problems. Students in the cued
condition saw visual cues on the training problems, and students in the
feedback condition were told whether their responses were correct or in-
correct. We discuss the influence of both cueing and feedback on students’
ability to solve the training and transfer problems.
*This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant Nos. 1138697 and 1348857.
BB04:
2-2:10 p.m. Visual Cues Increase Efficiency in Extract-
ing Relevant Information from Diagrams*
Contributed – Amy Rouinfar, Kansas State University, Department of Phys-
ics, Manhattan, KS 66506;
Elise Agra, Lester C. Loschky, N. Sanjay Rebello, Kansas State University
Adam M. Larson, University of Findlay
Visual cues overlaid on diagrams and animations can help students attend
to relevant features and facilitate problem solving. In this study we investi-
gated the effects of visual cues on students’ eye movements as they solved
conceptual physics problems. Students (N=80) enrolled in an introductory
physics course individually worked through four sets of problems, each
containing a diagram, while their eye movements were recorded and pro-
vided verbal responses. The problem sets contained an initial problem, six
isomorphic training problems, and a transfer problem. Those in the cued
condition saw visual cues overlaid on the training problems. Each diagram
contained regions that were alternatively relevant to solving the problem
correctly or related to common incorrect responses. The cued group more
accurately answered the transfer problems (which did not have cues), and
their eye movements showed they more efficiently extracted the necessary
information from the relevant area than the uncued group.
*This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. 1138697.
BB05:
2:10-2:20 p.m. The Effects of Problem-solving Training
on Students’ Reasoning Abilities*
Contributed – Xian Wu, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506;
Elise Agra, Claudia Fracchiolla, N Sanjay Rebello, Kansas State University
We study the effects of a computer-based training process on pre-service
elementary teachers’ reasoning on introductory physics problems with
diagrams. The training process contains four problem sets that target com-
monly known naïve conceptions in physics. The problems include physics
diagrams and text and require conceptual reasoning rather than computa-
tion. Each problem set has three training problems followed by solutions,
one near transfer problem, and one far transfer problem. We have analyzed
students’ verbal answers to elucidate the reasoning resources that they ac-
tivated to construct the different explanations that they gave in response to
the problems. We found that the students changed their reasoning dramati-
cally through the process as they were presented with solutions to training
