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Abstract
Introductory courses in mathematics and the physical sciences are challenging for students and often have lower success rates than other comparable courses. In online courses, this problem is magnified given the greater propensity for students to engage in surface learning strategies. In particular, it has been shown that students are not actively utilizing learning materials provided in the structured course modules such as lecture videos. To combat this problem, we have implemented two different solutions to improve student engagement and retention of knowledge. Firstly, we have incorporated Quick Checks into courses in general chemistry and precalculus, where students answer auto-graded questions directly after viewing the course materials. These aim to promote the viewing of course materials beyond homework and quizzes, including engagement with course lecture videos. Secondly, with the incorporation of online proctoring options integrated into our LMS offerings, we have moved to increase the extent to which examinations are proctored. This encourages students to engage in more frequent reinforcement prior to examinations because they cannot use course materials during proctored examinations. We show that these measures lead to greater engagement with course materials and improved performance on proctored examinations, although student performance on formative assessments remained relatively consistent.
Highlights
IntroductionAnother challenge is that the application of technology in education—and educational approaches in general—is a wicked problem, that is, one without a well-defined solution (Koehler & Mishra, 2008)
Brown and Liedholm (2002) showed that students in online courses performed worse on more complex questions than students taking those courses in traditional face-to-face classes. Another challenge is that the application of technology in education—and educational approaches in general—is a wicked problem, that is, one without a well-defined solution (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). It is well-accepted that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education poses particular challenges in online education, as seen in a qualitative study by Smith et al (2003) where instructors teaching mathematics online were less satisfied with the experience than those teaching other disciplines, partly due to technical challenges
As higher order skills are commonly required in STEM courses, this represents a significant challenge for online courses in mathematics and science, which have demonstrated relatively low success rates compared to their face-to-face counterparts (Xu & Jaggars, 2011)
Summary
Another challenge is that the application of technology in education—and educational approaches in general—is a wicked problem, that is, one without a well-defined solution (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). Students must “opt in” to engage in the course rather than “opt out” (Trenholm et al, 2016), but as noted above, students who become overwhelmed are more likely to fall back to a surface learning approach This includes disengaging from course material, as seen in the significant proportion of students who fail to view assigned online instructional videos (Law, 2019; Ross & Bell, 2007). Students are more apt to choose to withdraw or stop attending an online course compared to a face-to-face course (Ashby et al, 2011; Ferguson, 2020)
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