Welcome to the Computer Age. Computers are everywhere and seem to do nearly everything for us. They’re our tellers (ATMs), our merchants (Amazon.com) and our auctioneers (eBay). Here at Mississippi State, they’re becoming our teachers.
Many classes in the university are utilizing Web-based learning systems like WebCT. In addition to WebCT, such systems include the Brookes/Cole Assessment and the Online Web-Based Learning. Usually these systems are used primarily for assigning homework.
These systems are commonly used in calculus, chemistry and physics courses. All three of these courses teach problem-solving methods which require an understanding of the underlying problems and concepts. Often students will implement only part of the solution methods or demonstrate an understanding of the problem but still make a mistake.
As these homework systems are used more, their weaknesses become more evident. Online homework systems rarely take into account the fact that in these subjects, the working of a problem indicates understanding of the subject far more than the final solution does.
Instead, these systems take answers in a multiple choice format or in an fill-in-the-blank system that requires a complex set of non-intuitive symbols to enter an answer. If the answer is wrong, the students get no credit for it, even if their work is mostly correct.
Admittedly, the systems have various ways of dealing with missed answers. While some let students rework the problem a set number of times for partial or full credit, others require students to work the entire quiz over again, sometimes with different problems. Partial credit is important both for giving students credit for what they do right and for motivating them when facing a difficult problem.
The online homework systems can be quite glitchy. Calculus problems often require labeled graphs. BCA is notorious for giving students graphs that have no numbers and then asking questions that require those same numbers to be answered. Also, WebCT has been known on occasion to replace quiz scores with zeros.
Other problems may lie in design. For example, BCA has a tendency to require the student to redo all completed problems if the window is closed or the connection is lost before the assignment is completed. Obviously, this could cause hours of work to disappear if a battery goes dead, the computer crashes or the student runs out of time and has to leave the computer. This prevents students efficiently utilizing their time and forces them to sit down and do their work in one lump sitting-something that can be hard to find for a busy student.
Because assigning homework using an automated third party system-like BCA-is so easy, teachers often assign too much homework. When they do this-especially to freshmen-the students will possibly become overwhelmed. Instead of letting the teacher know they are overwhelmed, they simply quit because the online assignment system eliminates much of the communication between student and teacher.
The greatest problem with online learning is that it removes the feedback paths between the students and the teachers. Homework provides an excellent opportunity for the teacher to discover how the students are learning and how to adapt their teaching styles. Even if the teachers decide to check the answers students give on the assignment- which is not required-they still lack the all-important work that the student did on the problem.
Students, too, benefit greatly from the teachers’ feedback, especially comments on assignments. Even if the problem isn’t entirely correct, it’s always good to know what one did correctly.
Classes are already difficult. Unfortunately, the supposed convenience of the Internet and online homework systems only make the classes more difficult. Perhaps there is a point where the Computer Age goes a little too far.
Nathan Alday is a a senior aerospace engineering major. He can be reached at [email protected].