One TIP finding

I discovered that online collaboration (with Google Docs) had a similar positive effect on student performance as did offline collaboration.

The baseline data for student came from individual work. Students answered a free-response question from the College Board's Advanced Placement exams and were graded according to a standardized scoring guideline from the College Board. Each student's individual performance on a given topic was compared to the group performance on the same topic, as graded according to the appropriate scoring guideline.

The grade changes from individual work to group collaboration work for each student. However, students averaged a 16% increase in the online environment of Google Docs versus a 17% increase in the offline environment where only pencil and paper were used.

These results were determined over three testing periods of online collaboration and three testing periods of offline collaboration for each student. Stronger results could have been determined by utilizing more students and more testing periods, but the total AP class enrollment was seven students and instruction prevented allowing time for more testing.

First day of project

I got started on my TIP after a few modifications and a week of disruptive national Parliamentary elections. I gave my students in AP Chemistry and AP Physics each one (9-10 points) free-response question and a round of online collaboration work followed by a round of offline individual work for the same question.

The purpose of my TIP is to see the effect of offline versus online collaboration on student performance for AP science free-response questions. I am conducting individual testing after each round of collaboration to see if there is a residual effect on student performance after collaboration.



The design now consists of a 25-minute round of collaboration between 2-5 students followed by a 25-minute round of individual work. Students fill out individual surveys on their perception of their mastery of the topic being tested before each round and at the end. The former data collections will give me an objective, quantitative measure of group and individual student performance, while the latter data collection will give me a subjective, quantitative measure of student performance.

For these rounds, my AP Chemistry students used all the available time but my AP Physics B students finished early (18 minutes used for collaboration and 10 minutes used for individual work).

Trial run

I started my TIP research project data collection yesterday (AP Chemistry) and today (AP Physics) by getting my students collaborating online on one or two free response questions. However, a number of problems came to light and so I took these days as a trial run.

Here are the problems and my proposed modifications:

1. Short periods for group collaboration and individual testing on the same day --> Shorten the group and individual times from 30 min. to 25 min.
2. Google Docs lacks the ability to draw --> Direct students to Paint in Windows
   
3. Google Docs lacks the ability to cut and paste images --> Direct students FastStone Capture for screen capture.
4. Windows Calculator lacks important mathematical functions --> Direct students to
   
5. Surveys of student mastery lack needed information to help with record-keeping --> Add fields for date, name, topic of free response questions, and number of survey (i.e. first, second, third).
6. I need to reserve computer labs far in advance of research --> Reserve now.
   

Additional notes:

• I need to control the question length for each cycle of collaboration and testing. I will control the College Board point values to a reasonable number for each cycle. In other words, the students should have approximately equal number of points possible on any given set of questions given to them in an individual cycle. The numbers of questions might very but the number of points possible should remain constant, as possible.
  

Tell me what you think of my TIP

This post is for my colleagues and professors to comment on my TIP. The short synopsis is that my inquiry project will look at student performance on writing AP science free response questions between groups of on-line versus off-line collaboration. My proposal is on Angel and I'd appreciate your comments.

Instructions for this TIP blog

TIP Blog: Giving and receiving feedback. Good job to those of you who have created your TIP Blog. All blog links are listed at the top of the Assignments page. You are now ready to give, receive, and respond to TIP feedback. Here's the task:

Give feedback. Look at the table below to see who is on your TIP Team. Read their TIP proposal. All proposals are available from the ANGEL dropbox. Although you should look at the whole proposal, focus your attention on the questions and the plan. The goal of your feedback is to help your Teammate get good quality data. Review the guidelines for feedback given in the assignment. You are required to give feedback to each of your Teammates. If you wish, you may also give feedback to people on other Teams.

Respond to feedback. When someone takes the time to read your work and write to your blog, respond to them. Create a dialogue.

TIP Blog: TIP Journal. The receiving and responding to TIP feedback on your Blog is the beginning of your TIP Journal. You will continue to write in it regularly throughout this course. What is the purpose of the TIP Journal? First, your journal entries will help you organize your findings and make plans for your next step in your inquiry project. Secondly, TIP Journal helps you to present your progress and share your concerns/challenges with your classmate so that you can help with each other. In each TIP journal entry, try to include the following information

1) What you have done since your last report.
2) New challenges/questions/ideas .
3) Reflections/Analysis of what's going on.
3) Your plan for the next step.