Development of WeBWorK Problem Sets to Support Student Learning

Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant Program

Grant recipient: Taco Niet, School of Sustainable Energy Engineering

Project team: Gaitra Yapa, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Sheena Tan, research assistant

Timeframe: February 2020 to October 2020

Funding: $5,000

Course addressed: Sustainable Energy Engineering 310 - Integrated Energy Solutions II

Final report: View Taco Niet's final report (PDF)

Description: For the study, we will investigate how students in SEE 310 might benefit from WeBWorK questions being developed for lab preparation and concept development. We will build online WeBWorK problem sets that will allow students to prepare for lab sessions using the online WeBWorK homework tool. This will support student learning by allowing them to build mastery of a concept (multiple attempts at the WeBWorK problem set) before attending the lab sessions where they will have to apply their knowledge.

Questions addressed:

• Did the WeBWorK problems help students in preparing for the labs?
• What fraction of students completed the WeBWorK homework and is there a correlation between completion and grade in that lab?
• How much time did students spend on the WeBWorK questions?
• How many tries did students need to get the questions correct?
• How did pre-lab activities provided as paper-based homework compare with pre-lab activities provided on WeBWorK (and possible with labs with no preparation requirements)?
• Did the WeBWorK questions increase engagement of students in the lab sessions?

Knowledge sharing: I have discussed the project at faculty meetings in SEE, and I have also shown a colleague and their TA in Faculty of Environment (FENV) WeBWorK and discussed how to use it and the problems we created for this course. They have yet to adopt it, I think, but they are aware and interested.

I will be presenting about the WeBWorK project at “The Teaching Talks” organized by the SFU Faculty of Applied Science on October 22, 2020.

An abstract has been submitted to the 2021 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference.  

Keywords: WeBWorK, Student Learning, Prelab Problem Sets