Online Problem Solving Using COPS

Amin Jazaeri, PhD.COS Math & Science Accelerator/School of

Physics, Astronomy and Computational SciencesSpring 2013

What is COPS?

• COPS stands for:

Collaborative Online Problem Solving

• It is a tool to assist the instructor to track and view the dynamics of online collaborative group problem solving.

• It is also an aide to students to monitor individual group members activity.

Background on developing this tool

• Teaching undergraduate calculus based physics in LOGIC format. LO-GIC stands for:

Lectures Online Group-work In Class.

• It is a “Hybrid” course that concentrates on problem solving as an in class activity.

• Most students complain about their problem solving skills, even though they understand the concepts.

• They don't know how to setup the problems and/or use appropriate concepts that are applicable to the problem(s) at hand.

LOGIC Model (LO Part)• Started as a secondary project to a “distance” course.

• Each week students watch pre-recorded lecture videos available to them through Blackboard.

• The videos correspond to each section of a chapter (5-9 sections per chapter) and were of various lengths, from 4 to 26 minutes.

• Students watched the videos and then took a “Conceptual Quiz” at the end (Before the GIC Part.

• The conceptual quizzes were made available through the publisher’s homework management system.

LOGIC Model (GIC Part)• The face-to-face part of the course consisted of 1 hour

recitation and 3 hours of “lecture” time.

• The recitation part was used to review the lecture material and cover the previous week’s quiz and homework.

• During the “lecture” part, students worked in groups (3-5 students per group) solving problems.

• At the end of each problem, the instructor solved the problem on the board.

• At the end of the session students took an in-class quiz to test them on their problem solving skills.

Additional Activities

• Online homework through publisher’s homework management system.

• Students posted questions on Blackboard under “Discussion Board” regarding homework and lecture videos.

• Solutions to homework and quizzes were posted weekly.

• In-class Exams

• In-class Final

Lecture Review

Lecture Review

Taking notes

Problem Solving

Problem Solving

Problem Solving

Problem Solving

Taking the Quiz

Comparison of LO-GIC to the Face-to-Face Model

• Exam 1: 20% Improvement

• Exam 2: 10% Improvement

• Final Exam: 5% Improvement

• Failure rate: 35% !!!!!

• Good students performed better and poor students’ performance didn’t change.

• Student Evaluations: 4-5 in all categories

Physics 160 Online Course• Was Modeled after the LOGIC format.

• The in-class portion of the course was performed once a week synchronously.

• To ensure student engagement, pop-up quizzes were given.

• To assist students collaborating with each other for problem solving, Collaborative Online Problem Solving (COPS) was developed.

• The in-class problem solving quizzes were transitioned to on-line timed quizzes.

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Comparison of LO-GIC to the Face-to-Face Model

• Exam 1: 8% Improvement

• Exam 2: 5% Improvement

• Final Exam: no Improvement

• Failure rate: 24% (6/25) compared to (8/25) in 2010

• Evaluations: Only 3 students evaluated the course (2 of them loved it, and one hated it)

Equipment

Poor Man’s Equipment

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