Inessa Levi
11/05/2012
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Friendly, flexible and responsive course
management system
Specifically geared towards mathematics and
sciences
Tutorial software
Connected to our textbook
COMMUNICATION catalyst and tool
Great pedagogical tool
Great and fast support from EWA
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85% of students in class participated in an optional
survey on WebAssign and Excel (93 responses)
Of those participating in the survey:
◦ 90% said that they learned more or about the
same vs math classes that do not use tutorial
software (63% said “more”)
◦ 74% said that they studied more or about the
same (51% said “more”)
◦ 89% used Excel to do their work; and 90% of all
respondents believed Excel to be useful ( not
necessarily the same students)
◦ 98% who used Excel found it useful
Previous Seminar on Students’ Perspectives
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Help students to be pro-active learners
through use of graded in-class
assignments for new material
Be more responsive instructor: check on the status
of HW just before the beginning of the class to see
what needs to be addressed
Spend more time communicating with students:
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students send me Q about particular problem at any
time while they are working on it:
remind the students that an assignment is due in the
future and they have not submitted it yet (or their
score is < xx%)
congratulate students on work done well or early
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Instantaneous feedback from EWA and
fast response from the instructor
projected final grade update
throughout the semester
ability to practice problems in
assignments (83% of students liked
that about EWA)
Incentives and kudos for submitting
HW early (in MML have to do it by
student, by assignment)
Flexibility with time extensions for HW
(with or without penalty)
50.0%
45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
A
30.0%
B
25.0%
C
20.0%
D
15.0%
F
10.0%
Other
5.0%
0.0%
Fall 2011
Spring 2012
Fall 2011
Different class formats
38 graded assignments, including
5 Quizzes and 4 Exams
Some in-class work in one section
Dept 1101 2010
Spring 2012
All face-to-face classes are in a lab
52 graded assignments, including
6 Quizzes
Have to be in
17 in-class assign
class for
4 Exams
these
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“…thank you for the most enjoyable math class I've ever
been in. All my life I have had a hard time with math but
you made learning math fun. …I will say I learned a lot
this semester. I had to take math 0195 twice just to
enter into Math Modeling, this class really showed me I
can do anything if I put my mind to it. “
“... I just got hired as a 3rd grade teacher … This
school does blocks so I had the option to choose being
a teacher in the subject math or reading. I can happily
say, I chose to teach math. You were such an
inspiration to me and because of you I no longer say I
hate math. I now say, I like math-I just have to work at
it. I am thrilled and can't wait to start decorating my
classroom!”