Delivering Pre-Class Activities via WeBWorK

This data describes a study done at a small private university in the midwestern United States. The researchers sought to determine whether delivering pre-class activities online in a calculus classes improved student outcomes in an active learning environment. Statistically significant improvements were found in student perception of workload, as well as student perception of instructor feedback. No statistically significant difference was detected in student course grades. The first tab in the data file lists student grades in the control (pre-class activities done on paper) and treatment (pre-class activities done online), with grades converted to a four-point number (e.g., an A is a 4.0, a B+ a 3.333, etc). The second tab in the data lists the results of the IDEA SRI, administered at the end of the semesters. Four items were analyzed, with statistically significant effects detected in two of them. The full questions are: * "The instructor provided meaningful feedback on students’ academic performance", rated 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "Hardly ever" and 5 meaning "Almost always" * "Describe your progress on gaining a basic understanding of the subject (e.g., factual knowledge, methods, principles, generalizations, theories)", rated 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "No apparent progress" and 5 meaning "Exceptional progress" * "Difficulty of subject matter", rated 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "Much less than most courses" and 5 meaning "Much more than most courses" * "Amount of coursework", rated 1 to 5, with 1 meaning "Much less than most courses" and 5 meaning "Much more than most courses" N is the number of students who took the end-of-semester IDEA SRI, while the columns 1-5 indicate the number of students who marked that option for the given item. No students omitted any of the questions; the average and standard deviation columns were provided by IDEA.