Instant Feedback Online Math Homework via Moodle

This year's new Math program, CMP 2 (Connected Mathematics Project) brought with it some concerns about how to handle going over homework. At the beginning of the year, we settled on the following system: on the due date of the homework, students compare answers with each other at the start of class, and we review one or two of the most challenging problems as a whole class. That evening on our class management software, PantherNet (our schools form of Moodle), we post the answers to the homework problems we did not review as a whole class. Students correct and check their own work before handing it in for a score. This was our Math teams attempt to provide feedback while not cutting into lesson time. Prior to this system, we had found that it was possible to spend half of class or more going over the homework.

Nevertheless, I wasn't satisfied with the fact that students were doing so many problems for homework in Math that I wasn't able to give direct feedback to. I found also that students were either: 1. not correcting their homework with the answers the teachers were posting, or 2. just copying the answers straight from the key. That wasn't very satisfying either.

At the same time, I was frustrated by the organizational challenges for myself and the students of the daily homework assignments and grading. This motivated me to explore online submission of homework. I was aware of PantherNet's modules for online quizzes through my wife's, Carole Henriot's, exploration of this feature in her French classes (Intro, A and B). So I decided to trial it myself. What I quickly realized is that the Moodle quiz module allowed for immediate feedback in terms of accuracy as well as any comments I might want to make in response to students' answers or scores.

I have used the Moodle quiz module for online homework for about a semester now. In it's current form, I allow students to redo the homework as many times as they want, and I take the highest score for their grade. (It is actually possible for students to get a perfect score even after multiple attempts by correcting incorrect responses.) I also choose settings that allow students to keep previous correct answers on any new attempts (so they don't redo problems they worked correctly initially) while reworking only problems they have missed. There is also a handy feature that allows students to check the accuracy of their answer before submitting the assignment for a grade. From the teacher side of the module, I can see all of students answers and how they have adjusted them as they learn they are incorrect. I have been amazed to see how many students can correct an incorrect answer simply from being told that it is incorrect. Students rework the problem and appear to find their error and correct it. I have been amazed to see that no student settles for submitting an incorrect answer without trying to correct it at least 3 times. I have also been amazed to hear that students begin to work with their parents to find the correct answers. My sense is that using an online scored homework assignment has transformed the process of homework practice from one of simply trying to get through the homework as quickly as possible regardless of accuracy to one of multiple passes with multiple resources. I frequently hear students say something to the effect of not having understood a problem and not having attempted it. Papers with blank problems is not unusual. But online homework problems with blank problems IS unusual. I attribute the occurence of students' editing/revising of homework and the increased number of attempted and completed problems as resulting from the instant feedback nature of the homework. When a student knows BEFORE SUBMISSION that a blank problem is counted against them or a that an answer is incorrect, the student is motivated to solve the problem correctly, at least moreso that in the traditional homework format.

In terms of organization and management, it has reduced that amount of paper that both I and the students keep track of. It has taken the same or less time to create the online assignments than to grade the hard copy equivalent. And the time investment now will pay great dividends in future years when the assignment is already online for future classes, essentially requiring no more time on my part. Great advantages for management.

With that said, there are some cautions about online self-correcting homework. 1. It only lends itself to problems with discrete answers. Explanations cannot be scored automatically. 2. It requires the teacher/programmer to imagine various possible forms of the answer in order that the teacher/programmer enters all variations as acceptable correct answers. 3. The syntax of the answers must be exact to be accepted as correct, for example, spacing, labels, place value, etc. 4. It may promote a concern for a score rather than a concern for understanding.

Nevertheless, I have found the process worthwhile. It has also led me to ask if students' ability to self-correct their work when told an answer is inaccurate could result in better test performance. During a test early in the year, before ever thinking about online homework, I circulated around the classroom tell students to double check their work because a certain problem was incorrect. In many (most?) cases, I found students were able to correct their work once I told them it was incorrect. I don't think it's unfair to score students' tests after giving them a chance to correct themselves. Perhaps knowing which problems are incorrect provides motivation for checking their work. Otherwise, they seem to do it very little. And isn't this a worthwhile skill in itself, besides the understanding of content?

Next school year, I will attempt to conduct a more systematic study of the effects of online self-correcting homework to determine what effects it has on students homework completion, accuracy, parent interaction, and understanding as measured by tests. I'd like to be able to determine that such homework results in greater rates of attempt, greater completion, greater accuracy, greater collaboration, and greater understanding. Ambitious, definitely, but also worth a systematic study!