[RUME] RUME: Special Thursday presentation (organizer: Michael Pearson, MAA)

[Michael Gage]

Opportunities for In-situ study of WeBWorK as a Tool for Student Learning and Faculty Development

Thursday 5:30 -6:30,   Michael Gage (U. of Rochester) , Aaron Wangberg ( Winona State U.) and David Bressoud (MAA),  organizer: Michael Pearson (MAA)
 
The MAA  and the developers of WeBWorK have received a 5 year national dissemination (CCLI phase 3) grant to promote the widespread use of WeBWorK and online homework in college (and high school) mathematics instruction.  We are looking for researchers interested in forming partnerships to  use WeBWorK in researching how students learn, in evaluating the effectiveness of WeBWorK/online homework  in STEM education courses, or in exploring other opportunities for joint educational projects.

Michael Gage will give a brief overview of the open source online homework system WeBWorK, it's capabilities for handling mathematics homework questions, and some of the related assessment studies that have been  completed.

Aaron Wangberg  will describe his experiences in customizing WeBWorK to provide Calculus students with a pre-test / individualized practice / individualized post-test on 84 different pre-calculus concepts during the first 4 weeks of the semester. WeBWorK provides data related to effort (number of attempts, amount of time spent per question) and ability, and and this data can be used to invite students to targeted collaborative group activities (based on an Emerging Scholars / Treisman model) in his Math Achievement Tutoring Center.

David Bressoud will describe MAA's plans to provide a hosting facility for WeBWorK courses and support research into student learning using online tools such as WeBWorK.
 
 
Abstract:  Saturday  -- after lunch.
 
Michael Gage will be on hand to answer questions about WeBWorK's capabilities, about the WeBWorK user/developer community  and to explore possibilities for collaboration with WeBWorK developers on research into  student learning mathematics.  He can also handle requests to set up demonstration WeBWorK courses on the Rochester hosting facilities so that interested instructors can try things for themselves. If an internet connection is available at the conference the demo courses can be set up on the spot.

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