Student Interactions with Prerequisite Knowledge Tools: How Students’ Daily-Usage Patterns Can Inform Pedagogy in Calculus I

Volume 16 Issue 2 July - September 2019

Research Paper

Student Interactions with Prerequisite Knowledge Tools: How Students’ Daily-Usage Patterns Can Inform Pedagogy in Calculus I

James E. Folkestad *, Mary E. Pilgrim **, Ben Sencindiver ***, Priya Harindranathan ****

* School of Education, Colorado State University, USA.

** Department of Mathematics and Statistics, San Diego State University, USA.

*** Department of Mathematics at Colorado State University, USA.

**** Center for the Analytics of Learning and Teaching (C-ALT), Colorado State University, USA.

Folkestad, J. E., Pilgrim, M. E., Sencindiver, B., & Harindranathan, P. (2019). Student Interactions with Prerequisite Knowledge Tools: How Students’ Daily-Usage Patterns Can Inform Pedagogy in Calculus I. i-manager’s Journal of Educational Technology, 16(2), 14-34. https://doi.org/10.26634/jet.16.2.15799

Abstract

Many factors play a role in a students' learning experience, but students' course interaction behaviors are particularly important toward fostering success. Instructors build learning tools (such as videos, online quizzes, etc.) that provide students with the opportunity to extend their learning outside the classroom. These tools require students to self-regulate their learning behaviors, taking initative to incorporate them into their study routine. However, measuring how students actually use the tools is a challenge. In this paper, online tools were designed around Precalculus content and tested in the first two weeks of a introductory calculus course. Our intent was to identify students who may or may not be engaged in behaviors associated with self-regulation by collecting data on student interaction with online tools. If at-risk students could be identified early in a semester, then it might be possible to intervene in order to change engagement and behaviors. Data was partitioned into behavior-based clusters and interpreted based on course outcomes. This paper discuss about the cluster-based findings in relation to student performance measures and student self-assessments of self-efficacy for learning and performance in the course. This paper concludes with a discussion of how findings may inform pedagogical choices and future study.