Abstract
Pretesting and early intervention measures to identify and remediate at-risk students were implemented in algebra-based introductory physics to help improve student success rates. Pretesting via a math and problem-solving diagnostic exam administered at the beginning of the course was employed to identify at-risk students based on their scores. At-risk students were encouraged to utilize an online math tutorial to increase their chances of passing the course. The tutorial covers the same math topics covered by the diagnostic exam. Results from 643 students enrolled in the course showed that the 61 at-risk students who successfully completed the math tutorial increased their odds of passing the course by roughly 4 times those of the at-risk students who did not. This intervention is easily implemented, short term, and can be administered concurrently with the course. Based on these results, the Department of Physics has implemented the math tutorials in all sections of the introductory algebra as well as the calculus-based physics courses.
- Received 1 August 2017
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.020137
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
