Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: LQ43 on March 11, 2008, 04:36:20 PM
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I have to help a professor set up online homework, and was wondering what the general opinion is
What are your experiences when your professor uses online resources and assigns homework that must be submitted online (either with WebCT or other online system) ?
Frustration.... because of the chemistry or because of the online system itself?
Satisfaction ....because you get feedback right away and learn from your mistakes
Somewhere in between?
Would rather do everything on paper, hand in and get it back 1 week later....?
thanks for any replies
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In general I don't have any issue with online homework. There are sometimes when I do get frustrated by it. One thing that has always proved particularly frustrating is if the question has sig figs and it is looking for a certain answer, then sometimes finding that exact right combination of rounding and sig figs is annoying.
In general though, I do find them nice. The instant feedback, especially if it is coupled with either explanations of the correct answer, or pointers to where to locate the answer are very nice. The homework provided by webAssign is pretty good, although I've only seen it used for Freshman chem.
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Thanks Borek!! :)
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In general I don't have any issue with online homework. There are sometimes when I do get frustrated by it. One thing that has always proved particularly frustrating is if the question has sig figs and it is looking for a certain answer, then sometimes finding that exact right combination of rounding and sig figs is annoying.
In general though, I do find them nice. The instant feedback, especially if it is coupled with either explanations of the correct answer, or pointers to where to locate the answer are very nice. The homework provided by webAssign is pretty good, although I've only seen it used for Freshman chem.
Thanks macman104, I was hesitant about helping because some students get frustrated with the online systems and then it distracts them from the chemistry.
I know I can resent learning a new program and would get stressed if the system isn't accepting my answers because of not putting a leading 0 in front of the decimal or my sig figs were off.
thanks for any more replies
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The system is frustrating because it's very picky about sig figs and scientific notation. My prof also makes the questions hard on purpose, so if you can't figure out one part of the question, then you're screwed. We have a problem set due every Saturday at 8am.
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To be honest I think it can be very stupid sometimes.
Especially when its a scientific task.
It takes ages to adjust the symbols , to put all the formulas correct in a word document or any other document.
Everytime I had to do such online thing I spent more time in figuring out how to make a certain symbol then by making the task itself.
But it does depend on what kind of homework it is.
If you have to enter a lot of chemical reactions then I would say no!
If it is something more theoreticly then yeah why not.
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From a philosophical point of view, I don't think chemistry problem sets should be submitted online. Often the submissions end up being answers to multiple choice questions. However, chemistry problems often involve calculation and this work cannot be submitted in an online format. Thus, the online homeworks tend to place too much of an emphasis on the answer and no emphasis on the work leading up to the answer, whereas the actual work and calculations are the important part of the problem. Paper problem sets also offer TAs the opportunity to correct mistakes in a students' logic (e.g. showing which steps are wrong in a calculation) and offer feedback whereas multiple choice online quizzes exclude this option (of course, this presumes the TAs are motivated enough to grade the homeworks carefully).
The one somewhat effective use I've seen, however, is a system called Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) where students answer a prompt in essay format (for example, explaining how to analyze a spectrum or explaining how to perform an experiment). The system then allows students to anonymously grade each other, following questions and guidelines created by the instructor. Sometimes this leads to some interesting game theory (you are penalized if your evaluation of an essay deviates significantly from the average evaluation of that essay), but I like the system because it gives students experience in critically evaluating the work of others as well as allowing students to obtain feedback on their own work.
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From a philosophical point of view, I don't think chemistry problem sets should be submitted online. Often the submissions end up being answers to multiple choice questions. However, chemistry problems often involve calculation and this work cannot be submitted in an online format. Thus, the online homeworks tend to place too much of an emphasis on the answer and no emphasis on the work leading up to the answer, whereas the actual work and calculations are the important part of the problem.
The one somewhat effective use I've seen, however, is a system called Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) where students answer a prompt in essay format
but I like the system because it gives students experience in critically evaluating the work of others as well as allowing students to obtain feedback on their own work.
I agree with the overemphasis on the final answer with online systems and I will be looking into Calibrated Peer Review -thanks Yggdrasil!
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I think this would be a good idea. I am now at uni and like myself many are struggling with the webct system. It sometimes crashes, sometimes hard to find material. It's also very difficult to find a lecturer or professor to actually have a 1:1 basis. For me, I recently failed my organic chemistry exam due to this. Like myself as I said, many are performing poorly so I think this would be a great idea.
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A combination would be ideal. The online homework can be very helpful in figuring out how a problem works when the hint option is available to you to use (at the cost of a point deduction of course). However, when the hint option isn't present, and you don't know where to start solving a problem, or you think you know what you're doing then you hit submit and all you receive is 'try again,' it can be very frustrating. One solution to the significant digits problem is to always enter either 5 decimal places worth of significant digits or 5 significant digits total if there are less than 5 decimal places.
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as we're moving to a more digital age, we should start adjusting ourselves to technology.
from my experiance, webCT works well and is the closest thing I've encountered to online homework.
personally, as the next generation gets used to using it the internet at a young age, it basically the same (if not better) as paper homework
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In my opinion it is good at times as you get instant feedback on your workout but still the sig fig and scientific notations in system is just labourous and an headache.
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I would rather hand in a paper and get it back a week later. I feel like the professor actually takes the time to check my mistakes and leave some constructive criticisms. My professors also tells me what the right answer would have been and what i did wrong. When the hw is online, i get distracted very easily in facebook or listening to music and i end up doing a crappier job since im not focused
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Hi
Online homework is the best way to practice questions and get the feedback right there.It really helps in learning process .It gives an oppuritinity to straight concepts in brain.Many times I have seen that students get the concepts in wrong manner or entirely opposite way ,but when they do questions on it they realize that what they were thinking was not correct.
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I love the idea of online homework. There's no need to wait for the professor to give back the results (which is a big pain when the class is huge). I get very fast feedback, plus it reduces the amount of work of paper for me to carry. I agree that there are problems like the sig fig of the final answer and the system crashing, but that's relatively minor.
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Online homework is the best way of learning also.
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I'm not a huge fan. It can be affected by a bad connection, system collapsing, system needing repair, etc.
Also...I like scribbling on my homework. I'm not ashamed to kill trees. Plus...then you have the issue of things like MOs or structures that would be a pain in submitting online.
It's OK though. Not my first choice. Especially for chem.
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Frustration, most online assignments do not help because if you're getting the questions wrong only an answer is provided no explanation on how to do the problem.
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i am assigned online homework every week on masteringchemistry. it is okay, it is good because of the instant grades. another good thing about it is the fact that their is hints when you get stuck! i recommend it
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My Prof. uses www.webassign.com which is helpful as they allow you to do practice questions before submitting an answer to the question being graded. It also shows you the answer of the practice questions which really help as then I can sort of figure out how to get that answer. This is a good way for me to learn as I couldn't afford the book and am learning from basically lecture and online sources. :D
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Horrible
-ease of cheating if multiple choice or simply entering your final number. Also, handwritten work is easier to identify who wrote it, not so with a word(etc) document which can be copied and pasted.
-previously mention sig digs issues as well as formatting
-minor errors in ones work, combined with a one number type answer means 0/1 as opposed to if on paper showing ones work, would usually just loose one mark if everything else was correct (ex forgetting a minus sign)
-mostly used by those who want automarking to save them time
I would rather use paper every time.
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ease of cheating if multiple choice or simply entering your final number.
Care to elaborate? I am not pro nor against, but I don't see why it should be easy to cheat - I mean, if the test and software are properly designed, online version doesn't look more prone to cheating than a paper version.
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I have seen an online work for analytical chemistry, where the only work that would be entered was the final number. Upon submission the student would receive results(grades) with the correct answer given if incorrect. These correct answers were then shared with the students friends, and this group of 4 or 5 friends would alternate who did the assignment first each week, so that only one person had to get less than 100% in the weeks assignments.
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I have seen an online work for analytical chemistry, where the only work that would be entered was the final number. Upon submission the student would receive results(grades) with the correct answer given if incorrect. These correct answers were then shared with the students friends, and this group of 4 or 5 friends would alternate who did the assignment first each week, so that only one person had to get less than 100% in the weeks assignments.
That is problem with idiotic implementation, not with the method in general. Implementing quizz in such a way that each individual students gets its own set of numbers is rather easy :)
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well for me there is no frustration because neither chemistry nor the online system itself will make me as such, ill be totally satisfied because i can get feedback after making the mistake & learn from it..i can tell you this from my own experience since i do so, although my professors don't give online homework, but i google some chemistry test or quizzes just in order to have fun with it. Somewhere in between, don't think so. i wouldn't like to do everything on paper, hand in and get it back 1 week later..actually i hate this thing! So it's better to do it online and get the results immediately:)
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well webassign is OK, but sometimes very annoying especially with the significant figures. ANd the hints given are not useful at all..
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Your instructor should employ the following:
1. PDF files
2. Powerpoint presentations
3. Online links or references.
4. Audio
5. Other media applicable.
The site were the questions come from should be dynamic. Your instructor should be aware of that. If that is not the case, he has to use alternatives liek audio downloadables or pdf files that have been scanned from books (without copyright issues).
I have to help a professor set up online homework, and was wondering what the general opinion is
What are your experiences when your professor uses online resources and assigns homework that must be submitted online (either with WebCT or other online system) ?
Frustration.... because of the chemistry or because of the online system itself?
Satisfaction ....because you get feedback right away and learn from your mistakes
Somewhere in between?
Would rather do everything on paper, hand in and get it back 1 week later....?
thanks for any replies
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well see online assignments can put to real good use the thing is it's upto us to be honest. Well if one is not it's his/her problem.
The questions should be of the Multiple-choice type . They should be different for each student but testing only the same fundamental concepts and of similar toughness
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I haven't had anything other than multiple-choice online quizes, but I am a tutor at a university that uses My Math Lab for many of the lower-level courses. What I've noticed is a lot of data-entry issues, such as the computer only recognizing a very specific answer which sometimes means having an entire entry marked incorrect based on something like "+2" versus "2." Many tutees also complain that they don't have a computer/internet at home and trying to work their homework around the lab's hours are difficult (My Math Lab requires certain programs in order to run which isn't installed on most PCs in the school) when they are already juggling family life, jobs, etc.
As for my experience observing, cheating happens. A lot. And I doubt I see the bulk of it because its quite foolish to do in a center full of academia enthusiasts.
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I think that online homework is very useful, because you learn what types of questions the prof likes to ask.
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would rather do it on paper. it gives me enough time to think. nonetheless, on-line is faster
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There aren't any TA's at my school. I'd rather have paper homework also. But our prof says that grading homework for 70 students a weeks plus doing labs isn't an option.
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Online homework can sometime lead to excessive swearing especially when I accidently hit "o" instead of "0" ;D
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Well, I'm a chemistry tutor and I have a strong opinion about this because I've helped many frustrated students.
Honestly, I think online homework can be good and useful, however there are many websites that are difficult to navigate and input the correct answer, especially if chemical structures and reactions are required (like masteringchemistry.com). However I think masteringchemistry also has some of the best tutorials and conceptual exercises that I've seen.
I really think that the "homework" should be for only a small percent of the grade and that exams should be done in class for the majority of the lab. It's too easy for students to get together and cheat on their assignments or pay someone to help them.
I've even seen some online labs and those are really not very effective compared to a real wet lab.
What needs to be done is that the online material needs to be made more time-efficient and easy to navigate so I think multiple choice is the best way to go so that students don't get frustrated with inputting formulas. That's my 2 cents.