2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Traditional homework in engineering courses often involves “problem sets” – lengthy collections of problems students solve over a period of days or weeks. Time expenditure on these assignments is high, often numbering dozens of hours for each student over a semester-long course with a similar time spent by instructors to grade them and provide feedback. Instructors must therefore choose the most worthwhile assignments based on time available and impact on student learning and competence.

The purpose of this study is to build on previous research reported in the literature by examining the efficacy of self-revised problem sets in an introductory-level engineering course. Self-revised assignments are defined as those requiring an initial submission, the publication of a complete solution, and a subsequent student requirement to revise the initial submission by correcting any errors. Instructors grade the assignments by assessing most points to the initial work and a lower percentage to the revisions.

Two semesters of students enrolled in an introductory statics and mechanics of materials course (n=219 and 128 students, respectively) and 11 instructors are included in the study. We compare student achievement on select graded events to similar cohorts in past semesters that did not experience self-revised assignments. We also survey students and instructors on their impression of the self-revised assignments to evaluate the efficacy of these assignments in three areas:

1. Student academic performance on exams compared to previous cohorts
2. Student perception of the homework and learning experience
3. Instructor perception of the assignment style’s benefits to students and ease of grading

Outcomes proved neutral to slightly positive in each area. Student grades remained similar to previous cohorts, but struggling students demonstrated increased time spent engaging with the material during the revision process. Students reported neutral to positive perceptions of the method, and instructors generally favored the approach for its reduction in time spent grading. Overall, we recommend other engineering courses consider implementation of a similar dual-submission homework method, and we will continue to implement it in this course.