2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Paper-based homework with manual grading has significant benefits: it allows a grader to uncover student misconceptions and (potentially) give individualized feedback that can’t be replicated by an autogradable system. And the student user experience is closer to that of a paper exam. This similarity of experience is important because student practice with the same test format has been demonstrated to result in higher exam scores. But there may be a significant time lag between when students work paper-based homework problems and when they receive feedback with manual grading. With autograded activities in an interactive web-native textbook, students receive immediate feedback after submitting their answer, and can re-attempt the problem while they’re still in the learning moment. We analyzed the difference between student performance in an introductory circuit analysis course when an interactive web-native textbook was required but not assigned for points, and when the same interactive web-native textbook was required, and activities were assigned and tracked for points toward student grades. Data was available for 345 students across seven semesters at a large public land-grant research university. Over five semesters, the interactive web-native textbook was required, and the activities were recommended but were not assigned for points, while paper-based homework was assigned for points. Over two semesters, total points for homework was not changed, but was split between paper-based homework and completion of activities in the interactive web-native textbook. Paper-based homework assignments were modified to eliminate problems that were similar to the interactive web-native textbook problems or repetitive of other paper-based ones, to achieve a total workload that was very similar to when points were awarded only for paper-based homework. Most other course features were the same across semesters, including the instructor and final exam; differences are noted. By dividing homework points between paper-based and auto-graded homework, students are incentivized to participate in both types of activities, and benefit from both. Final exam grades were analyzed across the seven semesters. When the interactive web-native textbook trackable activities were assigned as part of the homework grade the percentage of students who received As, Bs, and Cs on the final exam increased from 45% to 57%, and the percentage of students who received Ds and Fs decreased from 55% to 43%, compared to when only paper-based work was assigned for the homework grade.