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Nieberding_Dissertation_SU2022_Final.pdf (2.3 MB)

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Evolution and Patterns of Response Time, Accuracy, and Procrastination Study Habits on Online Mastery Homework Assignments for Introductory Physics Students

Nieberding, Megan Nicole
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4185-2501
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658311384727804

Abstract Details

2022, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Physics.
This thesis will study student behavior and study habits associated with multiple short weekly online assignments called STEM Fluency. These assignments are a mastery-style homework assignment designed to refresh and improve student’s essential math and physics skills needed in an introductory physics classroom. This work is broken into two larger studies that investigate student’s learning and behavioral patterns using the STEM Fluency assignments. The first study characterizes student procrastination habits and investigates associations between these habits and student performance on graded course components, student beliefs about their own procrastination behavior, and gender. The procrastination habits of calculus-based introductory physics students are measured via the amount of time before the assignment deadline or “completion time” that students submit their work on relatively short (>30 minute) weekly online assignments. We find that one can meaningfully categorize students into 4 completion time classes that clearly distinguish students between their mean completion time, their week-to-week completion time patterns, assignment completion rates, mean course grades, and their gender. Consistent with many studies in a variety of contexts, we find that procrastinating students tend to have lower course grades. Regarding gender differences, we found that on average women tended to procrastinate less than men, submitting the assignments on average 8 hours earlier than men. We examine the idea that exam and non-exam components are separately predicted by the two somewhat “orthogonal” measures of ACT score and completion time, and we propose that these are measuring so-called cognitive and non-cognitive factors respectively. And finally, we found that the overwhelming majority (90%) of students did not strategically (“actively”) intend to delay completion of the assignment, and that students who did indicate actively delaying were 2-3 times more likely to receive a D or E in the course. The second study investigates the temporal patterns of algebra and calculus introductory physics students practicing multiple basic physics topics several times throughout the semester using the online STEM Fluency mastery homework assignments. For all practice categories, we observed an increase in measures of student accuracy, such as a decrease in the number of questions attempted to reach mastery, and a decrease in response time per question, resulting in an overall decrease in the total time spent on the assignments. The findings in this study show that there are several factors that impact a student’s performance and evolution on the mastery assignments throughout the semester. We report that students with lower math preparation for the physics class start with lower accuracy and slower response times on the mastery assignments than students with higher math preparation. But, by the end of semester the less prepared students reach similar performance levels to their more prepared classmates on the mastery assignments. Additionally, gender and procrastination habits impact the effectiveness and progression of the student’s response time and accuracy on the STEM fluency assignments throughout the semester. We find that women initially answer more questions in the same amount of time as men before reaching mastery. As the semester progresses and students practice the categories more, this performance gap diminishes between males and females. In addition, we find that students that procrastinate (those that wait until the final few hours to complete the assignments) are spending more time on the assignments despite answering a similar number of questions as compared to students who do not procrastinate. We also find that student mindset (growth vs fixed mindset) was not related to a student’s progress on the online mastery assignments. Finally, we find that STEM Fluency practice improves performance beyond effects of traditional instruction.
Andrew Heckler (Advisor)
Chris Orban (Committee Member)
Annika Peter (Committee Member)
Thomas Gramila (Committee Member)
110 p.
Education; Physics
mastery assignments; procrastination; response time;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Nieberding, M. N. (2022). Evolution and Patterns of Response Time, Accuracy, and Procrastination Study Habits on Online Mastery Homework Assignments for Introductory Physics Students [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658311384727804

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Nieberding, Megan. Evolution and Patterns of Response Time, Accuracy, and Procrastination Study Habits on Online Mastery Homework Assignments for Introductory Physics Students. 2022. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658311384727804.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Nieberding, Megan. "Evolution and Patterns of Response Time, Accuracy, and Procrastination Study Habits on Online Mastery Homework Assignments for Introductory Physics Students." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658311384727804

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.