Using ASSISTments for College Math: An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Supports and Transferability of Findings

将 ASSISTments 用于大学数学：支持有效性和结果可转移性的评估

• 批准号: 2215842
• 负责人: Neil Heffernan
• 金额: $ 9万
• 依托单位: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2215842&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Using; ASSISTments; College; Math; Evaluation

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving student learning in mathematics and statistics using an online system that provides feedback to students while solving homework problems. A common teaching challenge is how best to support students when they are stuck on a mathematics problem in a homework assignment. When the goal is to support productive struggle and not just provide the correct answer, it is not always clear how much support should be provided. An existing free web-based platform allows teachers and researchers to author questions and solution step supports, and it makes student action data available to instructors and researchers. Previous research results on the use of this platform to support student learning and the use of formative feedback in instruction in secondary school classrooms was promising. Given the potential of the platform as a useful pedagogical tool in those settings, this project aims to adapt the platform for use at the undergraduate level, where research indicates the need for such supports in introductory level mathematics and statistics courses. Understanding how the technological supports provided to college students as they complete mathematics problems impacts student learning and confidence will provide important insights for the design and implementation of educational materials broadly.By adapting prior studies, this project seeks to determine whether the use of an existing online platform for formative assessment of student work at the college level leads to similar gains in mathematics learning and analogous changes in pedagogical practices as has been reported at the middle school and high school levels. Over 100 randomized control trials have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of supports provided through the ASSISTments platform, but these have primarily occurred at levels of schooling prior to the undergraduate years. This project aims to determine whether the use of the platform at the college level leads to similar gains in learning and analogous changes in pedagogical practices. This will be accomplished by replicating studies at the college level which have been shown in the literature to be “Best So Far” supports – those supports which have significantly impacted student learning the most. To accomplish this, the project has four main aims. First is to support scalability by adding a feature to the platform which allows for the uploading of questions and solutions from the learning management system Canvas, thus creating a database of at least 500 problems aligned with college algebra, precalculus, calculus, and statistics curricula. A second aim is to design questions and feedback to improve student understanding and help them complete math homework problems, by creating 16 classroom-ready assignments on common topics in college algebra. Third is to use the platform in college mathematics courses and measure its impact on student learning, and persistence in STEM majors, thus generating large and rich datasets containing student actions within the platform. The fourth and final project aim is to track system usage by instructors during the semester, i.e., while problems are assigned and immediately after the due date, and also the persistence of system usage from semester-to-semester. Project results will be disseminated through the Open Science Framework and the platform’s website. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在通过使用在线系统改善学生在数学和统计学方面的学习来服务国家利益，该系统在解决家庭作业问题时向学生提供反馈，一个常见的教学挑战是当学生陷入数学问题时如何最好地为他们提供支持。当目标是支持富有成效的工作而不仅仅是提供正确答案时，并不总是清楚应该提供多少支持，现有的免费网络平台允许教师和研究人员编写问题和解决方案步骤支持。它使教师和研究人员可以获得学生的行为数据。使用该平台支持学生学习以及在中学课堂教学中使用形成性反馈是有希望的。鉴于该平台在这些环境中作为有用的教学工具的潜力，该项目旨在调整该平台以供在中学使用。研究表明，在本科阶段需要在入门级数学和统计课程中提供此类支持，了解为大学生完成数学问题时提供的技术支持如何影响学生的学习和信心，将为教育材料的设计和实施提供重要的见解。广泛地。通过调整先前的研究，这该项目旨在确定在大学阶段使用现有的在线平台对学生作业进行形成性评估是否会带来与 100 多个初中和高中水平所报道的类似的数学学习收益和教学实践的类似变化。已经进行了随机对照试验来评估通过 ASSISTments 平台提供的支持的有效性，但这些试验主要发生在本科阶段之前的学校教育阶段，该项目旨在确定在大学阶段使用该平台是否会带来效果。类似的学习收获这将通过在大学层面复制研究来实现，这些研究在文献中被证明是“迄今为止最好的”支持——这些支持对学生的学习影响最大。有四个主要目标，首先是通过向平台添加一项功能来支持可扩展性，该功能允许从学习管理系统 Canvas 上传问题和解决方案，从而创建一个包含至少 500 个与大学代数、初级微积分、第二个目标是通过创建 16 个关于大学代数常见主题的课堂作业来设计问题和反馈，以提高学生的理解并帮助他们完成数学作业。第三个目标是在大学数学中使用该平台。第四个也是最后一个项目目标是跟踪教师在学期中的系统使用情况，即当问题出现时。分配的截止日期后，系统使用的持续性将通过开放科学框架和平台网站发布。 NSF IUSE：EDU 计划支持研究和开发项目，以改进对所有学生的 STEM 教育的有效性。通过其参与式学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项是 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估，被认为值得支持。以及更广泛的影响审查标准。