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Re: [Phys-l] Online Homework Assignments and Grading

I agree with this to some degree. I do in-class peer instruction and can
quickly see who is "getting it." No grading needed. Unfortunately, when
students hand in an assignment done outside of class, you can never be
fully sure how they did it. There are integrity/fairness issues to deal
with -- online solutions manuals, seeing/copying another student's work
(either currently or formerly in the class), etc. They might be receiving
a grade they don't fully deserve. Maybe students in your school are
different.

Learning should be its own reward. If a student does the work and scores
well on the test, that is a great incentive. If they are struggling, they
can ask for help in/out of class. Students vary greatly in their ability
to understand physics, both conceptually and mathematically.

Each teacher has a different system for assigning/grading homework. I'd
like to hear ideas/opinions from others regarding this issue.

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
The reason to give homework is that homework is where students reveal
their grasp of the subject matter, interest in the subject matter, and
misconeptions about the subject matter. Homework is where you quickly
find who in the class are 'stars".

The reason to grade homework is to give students an incentive, in the
form
of a chance to improve their grade, to do homework.

I find that I learn a lot about a student from the homework he/she does,
or does not do.
Regards,
Jack

On Wed, 22 Jul 2009, Anthony Lapinski wrote:

I teach at a private school, but want to share some thoughts on this
issue. I regard homework as practice work, so why grade it? If students
can understand physics without doing the work, that's great. The test
will
show who knows it. Few students are like this. Most students will have
to
try some of the problems to understand the concepts/math and prepare for
tests. You can have students email you (or a conference you set up) for
help, or they can ask questions the following day in class. Or maybe TAs
are available in colleges/universities.

This has several benefits:
It puts the responsibility on the students for their own learning.
It reduces cheating/copying.
It increases student understanding.
It decreases grading by the teacher.

I also do (conceptual) peer instruction in class with multiple choice
questions. Students have to be active class participants, challenge
their
preconceptions about the world, and be ultimately responsible for their
own learning. This technique has dramatically changed the way I teach
and
how students learn physics.

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
I did exactly the same for years - randomly grade a few of the homework
problems. This past year, I found the number of correct responses rise
dramatically. I found out this summer that the students are using an
free
online answer source called "Cramster". They basically just copy the
solutions. It covers all the major textbooks.

www.cramster.com

I am now cobbling together problems from many old texts and handing
them
out each class. It's more work - but I'm retiring soon so I'll only be
using this technique for a couple of years.

Bob at PC

________________________________________
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
[phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of Jack Uretsky
[jlu@hep.anl.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 12:54 AM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Online Homework Assignments and Grading

Hi all-
I save time for the instructor by grading only a fraction of the
assigned problems. The students don't know in advance which problems
will
be graded, so if the don't do all the homework, their grades suffer on
a
probabilistic basis.
By the way, I had a recent collaboration with a chemist who
introduced be to a delightful book by Chandler (there is also a
solution
book to accompany the text). For the past year I've been dealing with
non-equilibrium thermodynamics (look up Glauber's work to get some
insight).
Regards,
Jack


On Tue, 21 Jul 2009, Polvani, Donald G. wrote:

I will be teaching introductory thermodynamics and electromagnetism at
local community college after an absence of over 5 years. The last
time
I taught the course I assigned end of the chapter homework problems,
collected and graded the students answers, and returned the papers to
the students. Sometimes I would go over an especially troublesome
problem on the board after finding that many students had a problem
with
it. Homework counts for about 15% of the student's grade.

In the fall, I am considering using an online homework assignment and
grading program (Mastering Physics by Pearson/Addison Wesley which
goes
with the textbook "University Physics by Young and Freedman). I have
not used such a system before, but the instructor in the mechanics
course, which precedes the course I will teach, has used Mastering
Physics for homework and likes it. She feels the students benefit
from
the extra tutorials and examples which are available as well as the
hints and extra tries that are allowed by the grading systems. The
instructor benefits from the savings in grading time and the automatic
compilation of grades which the system provides.

I'm wondering what the experience of the list has been with systems
like
Mastering Physics in introductory physics courses. This is a calculus
based course intended for engineers and physicists. Do you feel
online
homework assignment and grading systems are effective for the students
in addition to saving time for the instructor?

Don Polvani
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Undersea Systems
Annapolis, MD 21404
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


--
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley



_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


--
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley



_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l