Students – Ask Them to Eat Their Vegetables!

As entry level mechanics class sizes in engineering programs continue to grow, some classes swell to several hundreds of students per class [1], many faculty are turning to online homework based systems (Pearson’s Mastering, Wiley Plus and/or McGraw Hill’s Connect). These systems provide content, grading and assessment of student work, and feedback to the students while solving problems. One of the things that is missing from all of these tools is the capability to assess the student’s communication of their thought process as they progress through a problem. Most problems in these systems provide step-by-step guidance where students are asked to “fillin-the-blanks” with their answers. They do not allow for independent thought for the students to analyze and solve a problem in a manner that might make sense to themselves. In addition, they do not allow for analysis of that thought process by the faculty. Finally, there is no capability to assess technical communication though drawings and presentation of the solution. There is still debate as to whether these homework systems are the best mode of education for students. This paper illustrates the want from, and benefits to, students for both hand written and online homework. Teaching students how to solve a problem and present their work allows students to perform better on exams and instills a formal/orderly documentation process that may be used in future technical communication [2], [3]. Students appreciate the instant feedback from online homework systems [3]. Maybe there is a middle ground? This paper attempts to identify if students believe that handwritten and online homework are both helpful to their learning. Student evaluations of coursework indicate there is a desire for better online homework systems and/or a desire to return to hand written homework due to issues with online homework systems.