Resumen de Online Homework in Calculus I: Friend or Foe?

Cheryl Halcrow, Gerri Dunnigan

• This article describes a quantitative and qualitative assessment from a study done on the possible effectiveness of including an online homework component in first-semester calculus. Two instructors, each teaching two sections of Calculus I, agreed to treat one of their sections as an experimental group and the other as a control group. Students in the experimental sections were issued an access code from the publisher of the textbook used in the course, to an online site that reflected the problems at the end of each of the text's chapters. Homework problems were assigned for almost all sections covered in the course, and students were allowed multiple attempts with feedback on problems submitted incorrectly. The assignments were graded and recorded by the computer. One of the teachers had great success and significant results for his experimental section with the online homework program, whereas the other did not. Reasons for this are explored in the article.