Individualized interactive exercises: A promising role for network technology

Abstract For several years we have made broad use of network technology in large undergraduate physics courses. We have found consistent evidence that this technology has had a positive impact on learning. A major task in this project has been to develop questions and problems that can be used on individualized homework assignments and exercises. Our goals have been to promote collaboration among students, discourage students from mindlessly copying each other’s work, and guide students away from the plug-in-formula problem solving approach and towards concept-based understanding of the subject. In this paper we illustrate and discuss a variety of numerical and conceptual questions that we have developed. We use data from our Fall 2000 course to assess how the different types of problems impact student achievement. Results indicate that individualized interactive exercises, especially those in applet format, show the highest correlation with students ’ achievement. However, these problems are also the most difficult to prepare. The importance and value of expending that effort is discussed