Web-based Statics Course: Patterns in Use and the Relation to Learning Gains

Computer-based learning materials eventually forming an entire online course in Statics are presented. The course developed as part of the Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative (OLI) and available to individual learners and institutions, draws upon the authors' ongoing work to reorganize Statics instruction to better address the conceptual challenges students face. The course is divided into approximately twenty modules, with approximately 60% completed as of fall 2007 (the completion is scheduled for summer 2008). Each module is based on a set of carefully articulated learning objectives and contains expository text and various interactive exercises and simulations. Assessment is tightly integrated within each module, with students confronting frequently interspersed formative and summative assessments, that offer hints and feedback. This paper reports on the effectiveness of these on-line materials as they have been integrated into a Statics class. Paper and pencil pre- and post-tests have been administered which capture essential conceptual knowledge and skills presented in the modules. By analyzing log files maintained by the system, patterns of students' usage of the on-line materials can be traced. This usage is compared with progress as measured by the pre-post tests.