Abstract

College students enrolled in an online introductory engineering course are not completing their homework assignments at an acceptable rate which impacts them, the instructor, and the college. This research study employed a quasi-experimental evaluation model to assess the effectiveness of two pedagogical methods designed to positively influence student homework completion rates and student attitudes toward homework. Despite evidence that grading penalties encourage students to submit their homework assignments, such strategies have historically been unsuccessful for the course used in this study. The researcher designed two pedagogical interventions, along with a survey instrument, to measure the impact of the interventions on completion rates and student attitudes toward homework, using a combination of inferential and descriptive statistics. Ideally, the findings of this study would be generalizable to subsequent offerings of the course used in this study, as well as other courses taught by the investigator, and potentially other faculty at the college. Although both interventions did not produce statistically significant results on impacting student homework completion rates, or improve student attitudes toward homework, the results of the study did indicate a positive correlation between student self-assessed knowledge gains attributed to the course and its homework. One intervention did improve homework completion rates, but the results only marginally improved final course grades, which does not fully align with prior research studies. In addition, this study provided the researcher an opportunity to study their own practice and the importance of homework and its effectiveness for student learning.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2019

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Hartshorne, Richard

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

Learning Sciences and Educational Research

Degree Program

Curriculum and Instruction

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0007858

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0007858

Language

English

Release Date

December 2019

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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