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

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，从而服务于国家利益，该系统在解决家庭作业问题的同时向学生提供反馈。一个常见的教学挑战是，当学生在家庭作业中遇到数学问题时，如何最好地支持他们。当目标是支持生产性斗争而不仅仅是提供正确答案时，应该提供多少支持并不总是很清楚。现有的一个免费的基于网络的平台允许教师和研究人员编写问题和解决步骤支持，并且它使教师和研究人员可以获得学生的行动数据。先前的研究结果表明，在中学课堂教学中使用该平台来支持学生学习和使用形成性反馈是有希望的。考虑到该平台在这些环境中作为有用的教学工具的潜力，该项目旨在使该平台适用于本科水平，研究表明在入门级数学和统计学课程中需要这种支持。理解为大学生解决数学问题提供的技术支持如何影响学生的学习和信心，将为广泛的教育材料的设计和实施提供重要的见解。通过调整先前的研究，本项目试图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导致与在初中和高中阶段报告的类似的数学学习收益和教学实践的类似变化。为了评估通过ASSISTments平台提供的支持的有效性，已经进行了100多个随机对照试验，但这些试验主要发生在本科之前的教育水平。本项目旨在确定在大学层面使用该平台是否会导致学习方面的类似收益和教学实践方面的类似变化。这将通过复制大学水平的研究来实现，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。为了实现这一目标，该项目有四个主要目标。首先是通过在平台上添加一个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，从而创建一个至少包含500个问题的数据库，这些问题与大学代数、微积分预科、微积分和统计学课程相一致。第二个目标是设计问题和反馈，以提高学生的理解能力，并帮助他们完成数学家庭作业，方法是针对大学代数中的常见主题创建16个课堂作业。第三是在大学数学课程中使用该平台，并衡量其对学生学习和STEM专业持久性的影响，从而生成包含平台内学生行为的大型丰富数据集。第四个也是最后一个项目的目标是跟踪教师在学期中的系统使用情况，即，在分配问题时和在截止日期之后，以及从学期到学期的系统使用情况。项目结果将通过开放科学框架和平台网站发布。NSF IUSE: EDU项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.