Improving problem-solving skills using adaptive on-line training and learning environments

• Autores: Luis Neri, Julieta Noguez, Víctor Robledo-Rella
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 26, no. 6, 2010, págs. 1316-1326
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This study evaluates the effectiveness of an on-line adaptive training system aimed at improving students’ abilities to solve physicsproblems. The system displays a set of multiple-choice problems along with the correct answer and several carefully designeddistracters. The distracters correspond to typical mistakes that undergraduate students make according to the authors’ teachingexperience. Depending on students’ choices, the system provides them with appropriate, timely feedback and prompts them to solveother problems to practise their problem-solving skills further. In this way students solve a different set of problems of differentdifficulty levels according to their particular learning needs. The system also has the capability of providing other didactic resourcessuch as tutorials or virtual learning environments, such as active simulators, to enhance student learning. Owing to its flexible structure,the system allows for the sharing of test banks and didactic resources between different courses and professors. It also keeps track ofstudent performance and generates specific reports. The software was tested using a sample of 169 undergraduate engineering studentstaking physics courses. Using a pre-test/post-test assessment tool, it is found that students using the software (the focus group) have alarger average integrated learning gain than students who did not use it (the control group). This conclusion is supported by astatistical analysis based on Z tests.