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

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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.