Flipping Homework: An Effective Homework Model

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

6-14-2015

Publication Title

2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition

DOI

10.18260/p.24121

Abstract

Self-Graded Homework: An Effective Homework ModelHomework has been known to be an essential component in every educational process since itserves as a teaching tool that solidifies the concepts being taught using problem solving. It hasalso been used as a pre-indicator to monitor and assess students’ performance. However, theeffectiveness of this important tool has been declining in recent years due to many factors. Mostimportantly is due to the increase in homework plagiarism among students. Homeworkplagiarism was used by procrastinating students mainly as a survival tool, but nowadays evenhigh achievers are plagiarizing homework to thrive and maintain their academic status. Copyinghomework without honestly attempting to solve the problems obviously defeats its purpose andrenders it useless. Therefore, a new model for incorporating homework into the learning processin which students have a rewarding motivation to honestly work on it is urgently needed.In this paper, a novel model for incorporating an effective homework component with a course isproposed. In this model, the homework is scanned and submitted electronically. The student willhave to self-grade the original copy of the homework using the instructor provided solution andgrading rubric. The student will have to detail an explanation for every question discussing his orher solution. By doing so the student will have to understand the problem and solution and all theunderlying principles very well to be able to analyze and grade their homework. This willmaximize the effectiveness of the homework component within the learning process. The gradedhomework is what the faculty or the grader will have to grade to assess the student ability toclearly discuss the underlying governing principles in the homework problems and learn fromtheir mistakes. This model is sought to significantly minimize plagiarism among students andprovide a more accurate performance indicator for student learning in order to maximize theeffectiveness of the homework component. In addition, the implementation of this modelindicated that students are stricter on themselves than the instructor when grading their ownwork. To validate our findings, we conducted both quantitative and qualitative assessmentstaking into consideration all the parameters involved in this process. The effectiveness of thismodel was verified quantitatively by assessing the students’ performance in pre and post exams.The pre-exam was conducted to assess the students' performance without the implementation ofthis model while the post-exam was conducted to assess the same students’ performance afterthis approach was implemented. Qualitative assessment in a form of survey was conducted tomeasure the level of satisfaction among students using this model. Assessment results revealedthat students subject to this study were able to improve their grades and score higher on a majorexam than they previously did, thus confirming the merit of implementing this self-gradedhomework learning process.

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