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Article Excerpt
This study compares the effect of web-based homework (WBH) and paper-and-pencil homework (PPH) on student achievement as measured by exam performance. Various offerings of two large introductory physics sequences were examined over a three-year period, with some courses taught with PPH and some with WBH. We found that WBH offerings led to higher overall exam performance; the mean difference between WBH and PPH courses was about one-third of a typical exam standard deviation. In one WBH-PPH comparison, where there were matched final exams, the difference in exam performance was statistically significant. In addition, significant cost savings were realized in moving from PPH to WBH. Several mechanisms to explain the differential performance in favor of WBH are proposed.
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Web-based homework (WBH) systems are proliferating in the teaching of large introductory physics courses (1) nationwide. With the downsizing of both science faculty and teaching assistants, many universities have abandoned time-intensive approaches to homework, such as collecting and grading paper homework and conducting small discussion sections where instructors go over homework problems. WBH systems can provide an affordable alternative to traditional approaches to administering homework. It is likely that the financially motivated trend of replacing traditional paper-and-pencil homework (PPH) with WBH will continue to expand.
This study examines whether there is value added when PPH is replaced by WBH in large introductory physics courses. Specifically, whether there are measurable differences in exam performance between students in large introductory physics classes using WBH and students in the same introductory courses using PPH was investigated. The study investigates exam performance in two service course sequences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (the two-semester sequence for life-science majors and the two-semester sequence for physical science and engineering majors) over a three-year period.
The remainder of this article is divided as follows. It begins with a review of the research literature dealing with the effect of homework on achievement. Then the WBH system used in the courses investigated is described, followed by a description of the different course offerings. Results of the analysis of the effect of WBH on test performance are then presented. The conclusion is a discussion of the findings and implications.
PREVIOUS STUDIES OF THE EFFECT OF HOMEWORK ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Two research strands are relevant to this study: (a) the general effect of homework on academic performance and (b) the specific effect of WBH on science/math achievement. These two areas are treated separately.
General Effect of Homework on Performance
Although somewhat dated, several review articles have summarized studies of the relationship between homework and academic performance (Cooper, 1989; Keith, 1982; Paschal, Weinstein, & Walberg, 1984). One review that examined 15 quantitative studies (Paschal, Weinstein, & Walberg, 1984) concluded there is a moderately large positive effect of homework on achievement, especially homework that teachers grade or write comments on.
Another review (Cooper, 1989) examined 120 studies of the effect of homework on achievement. Twenty of the studies compared the achievement of students (in grades 1-12) who were given homework assignments with students who were not. Fourteen (or 70%) produced effects favoring homework. However, the effectiveness of homework varied dramatically across grade level; high school students reaped significant benefits from homework, whereas elementary school students showed no effect (positive or negative) of homework on performance. Although the results from these studies suggested that homework can have a beneficial effect on academic performance (as measured by grades) in a variety of subject areas, there are enough counter examples to prevent stating unequivocally that doing homework improves achievement. Cooper also reviewed 50 studies that correlated achievement with the amount of time students reported spending on homework, and found that in 43 studies (or 86%), a positive correlation was found indicating th at students who spent more time on homework received better grades; the remaining 7 studies indicated the opposite. As in the previous homework/no-homework comparison, the effect was nonexistent for elementary school students, and largest for high school students. A positive correlation between time spent on homework and grades was also reported in a more recent study of high achieving high school students (Tymms & Fitzgibbon, 1992).
Keith (1982) examined the effect of time spent doing homework on high school grades for a very large, representative sample of high school seniors. He found that time spent on homework was the second best predictor of grades after intellectual ability. Perhaps the most interesting finding in the study was that homework appeared to have compensatory effects; students of lower ability were able to achieve grades commensurate with higher ability students through increased time on homework. For example, Keith found that, by doing 1-3 hours of homework per week, the average low ability student was able to achieve grades commensurate with an average ability student who did not do any homework.
Effect of WBH on Performance
Few rigorous studies on the impact of WBH on course performance exist. Most of the literature on the use of WBH in the sciences describe how courses are structured or how the WBH system itself is structured (e.g., Lee & Heyworth, 1997; Smith & Stovall, 1996; Spain, 1996; Wells & Marsh, 1997). Statements about the cognitive benefits of WBH are often anecdotal, without rigorous supporting evidence. For example, one study claimed that WBH "increases the quality of instruction" but offers no data or evidence to back up the claim (Smith & Stovall, 1996). Another claimed "while there is no formal evidence of improved student performance, alumni have told us that they greatly benefited from use of technology in this course..." (Wells & Marsh, 1997). Another article describing a WBH system in physics, designed in large part to administer conceptual questions, claimed, "No formal evaluation of the effectiveness of these questions has been made..." (Kashy, Graff, Pawley, Stretch, & Wolfe, 1995).
Three studies offering evaluations of WBH are worth noting--two in physics courses and one in a statistics course. The statistics course (Porter & Riley, 1996) used WBH characterized as a "drill program." Students were divided into computerized homework versus noncomputerized homework groups, and performance on exams was compared. Although the computerized homework class outperformed the noncomputerized homework class, the differences were only significant in the final exam, and only on questions that related to the homework; the computerized homework class actually performed lower than the non-computerized homework class on questions not related to homework. Another study investigated the effect of multiple-choice WBH in an introductory physics setting...
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