The first two or three days of physics class are spent setting the tone for the year and finding out how much the students already know and remember from previous experiences. Topics covered include significant figures, scientific notation, and dimensional analysis.
On the third day of class, I announced that all students would have
the opportunity to participate in a research project.
I announced to the class that, "Every day for the first couple weeks,
six to eight of you will go to the media center to use the internet to
get class materials." Instantly four hands went up of students wanting
to try the online materials. There was no way to be sure if their
motivation was curiosity, confidence in their ability, or the desire to
be anywhere other than in class.
Thus the first two weeks were spent like this: Everybody comes to class on time, we briefly discuss the previous day's materials, the first six to eight volunteers went to the media center computers for the hour. Each day, I gave each student a sheet describing their responsibility for the hour. Usually, this included looking at three or four web pages and solving one or two problems. The in class students had to do more problems than the online students. If an on line problem proved to be quite challenging, it could easily consume a significant amount of time. Rather than focus on the quantity of problems solved, it is better to make students into flexible problem solvers.3 The topic covered during this time was one dimensional motion. This included speed, distance, time, acceleration, and constant speed circular motion.
As the time went on, it became clear that the internet material wasn't for everyone. After only one visit one student asked me, "Can I never leave again? I need to stay here." Others reacted positively to the format. A few students repeatedly asked to go, and these students always completed the work satisfactorily.
Near the end of the first two weeks, I announced that a more involved stage of the study was coming. Six or so students would spend the whole unit in the media center. Upon completion of the online unit, these students would come back to class and take the same test that the in class students would take. I tried to emphasize all of the risks, chiefly that the in class students would have the benefit of instant interaction with me all hour, while the online students would have to rely on each other, the chat room, and email contact with me.
Using volunteers who had already shown an aptitude for the internet format was a way to avoid sending students who were not well suited to it. It also reduced my worries about whether the students I sent would really do the work. Previous study at Penn State showed that when students worked on their own using computers, accountability was a problem. Physics instructors tried to address this by having group reports at the end of class sessions.11 Since I had seen the results of everyone's previous trips to the media center, I had confidence that the ones who went for the extended sessions would get the requirements completed. When the first day of the vector unit arrived, there were twelve volunteers. I put their names in a hat and drew seven. I would have liked to have had a larger sample size, but I only had nineteen students in only one physics class. Furthermore, space in the media center is limited.
The assignment was clear; look at all of the materials presented in the vector chapter and complete all of the online problems in that chapter. The time frame was not concrete. The internet students had exactly the same number of days as the in class students. It was the in class section that would determine the test date, although I could tell the internet section students that it would be about two weeks.
After the vector test, we spent several weeks on cicular dynamics, force, and energy. All students were in class. There was internet material available, but only as a supplement to class materials. I have no record of how much these materials were used.
Upon completion of the energy unit, I again asked for volunteers for the unit on momentum. This time there were seven volunteers, and all seven had been involved in the internet vector section. The one student who declined the second time had done poorly on the unit test, and felt that he would be better served by being in class. Again, after about two weeks all students took the same unit test.