UCI Internet Homework Delivery and Scoring System (IHDSS)
UCI School of Physical Sciences
09 April 2002
Overview of the Proposal
The challenge of providing the necessary level of academic support for an expanding lowerdivision student population as financial resources are being reduced requires innovation that is
both effective and economical. This project responds to both of these requirements. Based on
the existing WwBWork (WWk) internet-based project, the UCI IHDSS Project seeks support
for expanding WWk beyond its current use in the first two quarters of calculus (Math 2A and
2B) to several math and physics courses; the design and application of a protocol for giving online quizzes that are secure; the enhancement of WWk's versatility with the addition of MathML
to the program. This project will also support the formation of a partnership with UCR to share
the existing system and assist with the expansions and improvements. It is also intended that
the development of the UCI-UCR partnership will serve as a model that can be replicated to
share the elements of this project with other UC, CSU and two-year Colleges.
Background
In response to an expanding student population at UCI, and most UC's, the size of 2A-B
calculus classes has increased to 110 students, and in the fall of 2002, UCI will conduct 500
student 2A and 2B classes. Providing the students in these large classes with a rich and
supportive educational experience is a challenge. This situation is exasperated exacerbated? by
reduced financial resources for lower-division classes that has resulted in the elimination of
graders to check student homework and a reduction of teaching assistant (TA) hours for some
math classes. As a result, the traditional feedback and time devoted to the problem and content
explanations students need has been greatly reduced. It was in an effort to minimize the impact
of these changes on the students that UCI first began the use of WWk.
[New paragraph] The WeBWork Program was developed by Dr. Michael Gage and Dr. Arnold
Pizer at the University of Rochester with partial support from NSF. WWk is an internet-based
system for generating, delivering and scoring homework problems. The structure of the
Program provides students with a set of weekly homework problems aligned to the syllabus and
text. After the problem assignments have been created for a class, usually by a lead WWk
instructor, there is almost no additional work required from the instructor or TA's. [I’m not sure
it’s best to emphasize the reduction in instructor workload in this way. It might be more potent
to say that WebWks frees up instructor time for other pedagogical tasks such as_________.]
The convenience to instructors continues throughout the course as the grading of the
assignments and the record keeping is part of the Program. At the end of the quarter, individual
student scores for each assignment are formatted for a spreadsheet that is easily incorporated
into any standard grading program (Excel).
During the initial year of operation, UCI piloted the application of WWk in two formats. For
most of the classes the Program was used as a supplement to the traditional configuration of
three lectures and two discussion sections a week. The second format involved having one
discussion section a week with the second discussion hour used to work on the assignment. In
this latter application, the Math Department was able to use half the number of TA's required
for the 2A and 2B class. By using the weekly WWk assignment to replace one of the two
weekly discussion sections, one TA can covered the discussion sections for two classes. This
efficient use of a TA has positive implications for both the costs of providing TA's and the
number of TA's needed for classes the use WWk. [Again, since the grant program is looking for
projects that increase student learning as their focal point, I’d emphasize less the cost and
number of TAs aspects and focus more on how the students benefit.] On an end of the quarter
course evaluation, students were asked if WWk was helpful in learning the material. The 2B
students in both formats, either one or two discussion sections per week, rated WWk, on a scale
of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), the same with a mean score of 3.5. This score is
consistent with past student responses on the standard course evaluation question asking them to
rate the value of the assignments (homework and quizzes) given in the course. This score is
seen as a positive indication that WWk is of value to the student. It would not have been a
surprise if the students' response to this additional work had been negative. In fact, the "Agree"
option received the most votes when compared to the four other options. Remarks written by
students on were almost all positive [I’d emphasize this last piece of data first and downplay the
fact that there was no statistical difference in the numerical ratings between the control and
experimental groups. The Committee is looking for ways that technology improves student
learning over traditional methods as opposed to keeping the status quo.] The most common
student written responses were that they liked WWk because it gave them immediate feedback
on their answers, and that working problem sets bases on a the material from three lectures help
them prepare for the exams. An unexpected positive result of using WWk was the consistency
by which the 2A and 2B instructors maintained the schedule of the Department syllabus. In
discussion with some of the instructors, they stated that wanting to prepare students for the
WWk assignment was a motivating force for keeping pace with the syllabus. Of course, WWk
does allow for the individualization of the assignments and the due dates, and one instructor
took advantage of this flexibility several times during the quarter. However, in that UCI has
several Visiting Lectures/Professors who traditionally are at UCI for two years, there are real
benefits to a program that promotes the desired pacing of the course. One benefit is that students
in different sections of a class are able to work together to learn the material. A second benefit
is that subsequent classes are assured that the incoming students have a common background.
[You can strengthen these last two points in a couple of ways. First, according to Gamson and
Chickering, immediate feedback is one of the Seven Principles for Good Practice in
Undergraduate Education, as is “Good practice develops reciprocity and cooperation among
students” (1987).
As a direct result of this positive experience in the Math 2A and 2B classes and the structure of
WWk described in the following preceeding? paragraph, the staff and faculty on the WWk
team recognized the educational value of expanding the WWk program beyond its current use
in the first two quarters of calculus classes to the pre-calculus and other more advanced math
classes. In addition, in a meeting on WWk conducted by the Dean's Office, the Physics
Department indicated an interest in using in some of their classes. I It was also recognized that
other UC campuses not currently using this level of technology should be contacted and invited
to participate in the program.
[I’d move the following 2 paragraphs up front as the pedagogical arguments for the program are
stronger.]
The success of WWk is the direct result of the following feature of an internet-based homework
system (WWk) included as a part of the instruction in math and physics courses: 1) students
have access to the problem sets through any computer connected to the internet at any time,
within the allowed open period, students want to work on the problems; 2) students receive
immediate feedback on the validity of each answer and the opportunity to correct mistakes in a
timely basis; 3) each student is provided with an individualized versions of the problems which
allows for student based collaborative groups to work to solve several versions of the problems
without sacrificing the value of the assignment that would be lost if there were only one version
with answers that could be copied; 4) WWk remembers each unique problem set it generates for
a student which allows a student to download the problems, log out and spend quality time
answering the problems and, if necessary, seeking assistance from the TA, instructor, or another
student before submitting answers; 5) assignments are arranged in three-lecture (weekly) sets
which compels students to broaden their understanding of the material from a isolated
individual sections of the text to a larger context of related topics and generalized concepts; and
6) the problems and their answers are available after the assignment due date which provides
students with an excellent set of review problems for exams.
WWk also has features that allow the instructor to improve the educational quality of their
course. The program maintains a real-time record of student progress on the individual
problems in each assignment. This record includes the number of questions that have been
answered correctly and the number of attempts for each problem by each student. This allows
the instructor to modify the content of a lecture in response to the students' success or failure on
the questions and assignments. This also provides the feedback from which an instructor may
decide to repeat a problem on subsequent WWk assignments as a strategy to reinforce a
problem or concept that was not well understood by the students, or re-teach this concept in
lecture or discussion section. Assignments can also include problems from previous
assignments as a strategy for helping students retain concepts over the length of the course.
Instructors may also provide hints to a problem that can serve as an anticipatory assignment for
students to work before the material is presented in class.
The Structure of the Collaboration
The organization and maintenance of this project will involve the following participants. The
Project team will include from UCI: Domingos Begalli from the Dean of Physical Science
Office, Larry Chrystal and Robert Reilly from the Math Department, and Mike Dennin from the
Physics Department. UCR will be represented by Neil Gretsky from the UCR Math
Department.
Domingos Begalli will be responsible for the technical elements of the Project including
maintaining the hardware and software with members of his office, and programming the new
math and physics problems. Larry Chrystal will coordinate the selection of problems from the
WWk database for the Math 2A and 2B classes, and coordinate the writing of the problems for
the Math 1A and 1B courses. Robert Reily will select the problems for the Math 2J course and
Mike Dunnin will select the problems for the Physics 6 class. Neil Gresky will serve as the
UCR liaison and coordinate the selection of the material for the UCR calculus classes. During
the first two quarters of the UCI-UCR collaboration, the participating UCR math classes will be
served as if they were UCI classes using UCI's hardware and technical expertise. This
collaboration will include: 1) acquiring the list of students for each UCR class participating, and
entering the names into the data base; 2) updating this database as students add a class; 3)
selecting the problems for each assignment consistent with UCR's classes; 4) responding to
timeline changes as requested by instructors; and 5) providing the students' scores to the
instructors at the end of the quarter. Based on past experience, it is planned that UCR will be
able to operate independently and provide WWk to its students beginning the Spring Quarter of
2003. Of course, the sharing of WWk software at UCR will not end the collaboration. There
will be a continue d sharing of material developed and piloted at UCI, like such as the Math 2J
and Physics 6 classes. It is also intended that as individual faculty at each campus chose
chooses to expand WWk to different classes, there will be a sharing of these resources. For
example, if the UCR Engineering Department takes the lead in developing the material for a
class that is also taught at UCI, there will be a collaboration among the faculty involved during
the development and a sharing of material after the curriculum has been developed. It is also a
component of this project to analyze the elements and progress of the collaborations so that the
lessons learned in promoting and maintaining a collaboration focused on sharing technology can
serve as the foundation for future collaborations between departments, schools and universities.
First Year Activities and Timeline
Training
For all instructors, TA's and members of the WWk team there is be an orientation and training
in September 2002, during the week before the start of classes.
Standing WWk Meeting
Established this year, there will be a meeting of the WWk team every Wednesday afternoon to
discuss the success of the project, plan changes to the project in respond to requested changes
by instructors and resolve operational problems identified by the team
Math 1A and 1B
In the fall of 2002, assignments for selected Math 1A and 1B classes will be written and piloted
by a team of1A and 1B instructors. During the winter and spring '03 quarters, WWk will be
used in all 1A and 1B classes. This will serve approximately 800 students.
Math 2A and 2B
These classes have an established WWk program and bank of problems. During the '02-'03
academic year there will be additional problems written. For example, instructors have
indicated that the current set of problems for the topic of Continuity (2A) is inadequate and
should be expanded. The writing of additional problems will also be needed in response to the
UCR calculus classes. This will serve approximately 3,500 students.
Math 2J
This is one of the third quarter calculus classes offered at UCI. The current WWk bank of
problems on sequence and series will be used for the first part of the class. However, problems
will be written for the other topics in this course and piloted in one class during the fall '02. In
Winter and Spring of '03, these problems will be used in this class. This will serve
approximately 400 students.
Physics 6
There are currently no physics problems in the UCI WWk problem bank. However, Michigan
State University has developed physics problems as part of its CAPA: Computer-Assisted
Personalized Approach program. CAPA is considered a precursor of WWk. CAPA has been
used in physics courses extensively and has a comprehensive database of problems. A team at
Rochester has written a translator for CAPA problems that outputs WWk formatted problems.
These problems will serve as the foundation for the Physics 6 WWk assignments. This will
serve approximately 300 students
WWk Quizzes
During the evaluation of WWk it was suggested by faculty that expanding WWk to include the
administration of secure quizzes would be a welcomed use of the technology. Beginning in
September '02, the UCI WWk team will search existing on-line quiz programs, like the system
CAPA uses, and in collaboration with Rochester , develop a WWk based program that will
administer secure quizzes. This quiz program will be piloted in Fall'02 and provided to the
various math and physic teams for possible inclusion in their respective courses. The questions
for these quizzes will either be taken for the WWk problem bank or written for the quiz. It is
likely that the course TA will be responsible for providing the quiz questions. However, the
model of the quizzes written by the WWk instructor for each class may prove popular. The
number of students that will be served during the first year of this program cannot be
determined at this time. However, the potential is for the quizzes to be used with all WWk
classes, and perhaps, classes that do not use WWk will use this quiz program with its
convenient scoring and recording keepingproperties.
MathML
??
Project Goals
• Enhance student learning of math and physics by providing students with on-demand access
to course based problems that provide immediate feedback on the validity of the students'
response.
• Provide an effective response to diminishing financial and personnel resources through the
economic use of technology with a strategy that does not sacrifice the quality of education
students receive in math and physics classes.
• Establish a collaborative with other UC faculty and staff to find ways to apply and expand the
WWk technology to a variety of classes, starting with math and physics classes.
• Expand the use of WWk technology to provide a secure method for giving quizzes and
recording the results.
Project Evaluation
Dr. Steve Frinklin Franklin, Director of Academic Outreach, Networking and Academic
Computer Services will serve as the Project Evaluator. The evaluation will include the writing
of questions to be included on existing course evaluation, and the development, circulation and
tabulation of surveys to instructors and TA's. He will monitor the progress of the development
of the new set of questions written for each course. The Evaluator will interview the members
of the WWk team to monitor the progress and success of the various collaborations and
expansion efforts of Project.
Budget
(Provided by Dimonges, and the Deans Office