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Self-Checking Software in the Math Classroom

Barry Parker

Department of Instructional Technology, Kennesaw State University

ITEC 7500: Capstone Experience & Portfolio

Tracey L. Borup

May, 2021
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Self-Checking Software in the Math Classroom

With technology ever growing it is only natural to think of how it can be used to

better your work life. For me working at Union Grove High School in math classes students

would be waiting for a teacher after completing problems to see if they were correct before

moving on. Students would have to wait for a teacher to check their understanding or take

time to look at an answer sheet that also had all the other answers on it. I would also have

students turn in 25 to 30 minutes of homework problems, but they would be all incorrectly

solved. With their work being incorrectly solved at home the need to reteach would occur

thus losing a day of learning. The solution to these problems is to use a self-checking

software program for assignments.

Description of Capstone Experience

This project was promoted by the need to give feedback to students in a timely manner

for their math problems. In a typical math classroom at Union Grove High School there are

anywhere from twenty to thirty students. When students are practicing problems they want to

know if they are completing them correctly. The only way for students to verify if they are

correct is to ask the teacher. Having only one teacher in the classroom, some students would

have to wait to receive feedback on their problem. Providing timely feedback gives students

guidance and directions when problem solving in the classroom (Lin, Lai, & Chuang, 2013). A

study by Emily R. Fyfe and Bethany Rittle-Johnson (2015) investigated the effects of feedback

for children solving math equivalence problems. They worked with fourteen classrooms in

Middle Tennessee. In the study, the results came to show that feedback had positive effects

relative to no-feedback. This relates to my topic because if students do not have time to receive

feedback then the students do not receive the benefit of the feedback. Nate Kornell (2014) had
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participants answer trivia question and give them feedback and had them test again. Kornell

found that the delayed feedback was just as effective as immediate feedback. However, he also

found feedback to be more effective than no feedback. I also found out this to be true when

looking at data from our own school. Students who completed the tasks and received feedback

did better on assessments then students who received no feedback.

Using our one to one technology and using practice sites students can receive immediate

feedback on their practice problems. In a study by Emily Fyfe and Bethany Rittle-Johnson

(2015), they found that feedback is most beneficial for students with lower knowledge during

problem solving. Yigal Attali (2013) describes the effects of immediate feedback on accuracy in

his study. This study came to the conclusion that frequent elaborated feedback can increase

expertise development and increase engagement. When tested, the groups with immediate

feedback scored more accurately than those without feedback. This study supports my

intervention to use online practice sites who give extensive feedback. The extensive feedback for

students includes the correct answer and how to solve the correct answer. Some online practice

sites even include their own instruction videos that can be helpful for students who are learning.

One online practice site is Khan Academy. The effects of Khan Academy-aided teaching

was studied by Şan & Aykaç (2020). In Şan & Aykaç's (2020) research from Turkey they

sampled high school students with a pre and post test to see if there was a difference in scores

when using Khan Academy. The results showed a significant difference between the control

group and the experiment group. This study showed the learners who had been exposed to Khan

Academy videos were more successful in grammar-based examination.

Kelly, Kim, Neil Heffernan, Cristina Heffernan, Susan Goldman, James Pellegrino, and

Deena Soffer-Goldstein (2014) studied the effects of using web-based homework in place of
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traditional homework. In the study the students with web-based homework out preformed

students who completed traditional homework on a pre and post-test. Learning gains were also

higher for those students in web-based homework group.

Implementation

In order to get started with using self-checking software online we first had to meet as a

collaborative group and discus the benefits and select what activities we were going to plan. The

original plan was to use multiple software, but the group decided it like the Delta Math program

the best. We met as a collaborative group once every week to discuss the implementation of the

software and discuss data that was coming from the software. At first students had to learn how

the program worked it has various penalty options that the teacher can chose to increase the

rigor. Once students learned the program and how it worked we received positive feedback from

them in which they told us they felt more independent when completing work. On assignment

that we sent home we saw an increase in completion from 60% to 80%.

Project Outcomes

I evaluated the success of my project by looking to see if students were able to complete

their work 90% by looking at teacher student checklists. I saw that if students were more

accurate on their pre and post-tests when using the self-checking software. Students were

receiving meaningful feedback from the self-checking software. As a collaborative group we

looked at the data to see if 90% of the work was being completed. From the data the group

concluded that only 83% of students were completing the assignments. When we compared the

pre and post test to see what the data suggested the data suggested that students who took

advantage of the self-checking software practice did better than students who did not work on the
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software. From there we meet in a collaborative group to talk of strategies and best practices and

prepare for the next week. The strategies included changing the penalties, catching up students

who were absent, and increasing or decreasing the number of problems. Once at the end of this

school year teachers will compare data from the Milestone. In the end the data we collected

suggests online practice work with feedback is helping students improve their math skills.

Barriers Encountered

Some of the barriers that we encountered include knowing how to use the software,

trouble shooting errors for students, and not being able to assign exactly what we wanted.

The first issue of knowing how to use the software was easily overcome by working in our

collaborative group. We also used the help explanations and videos that Delta Math

provides. Trouble shooting errors for students included adding students to our rosters,

showing students how to see assignments, and showing students how to look at their grade

on completed assignments. In Delta Math’s free version, the practice that you are allowed

to assign may not be broken down enough for students or there are certain problems you

do not want students to see. The only way to overcome this is to buy the premium version

of Delta Math which our team did and it came with a lot of benefits. All in all the Barriers

that we encountered we were able to adjust.

Follow-Up 

Yes there will be follow-up to my work in that we will take Milestones at the end of

the school year. Teachers will look at the data and make conclusions on how to continue

the self-checking software. Teachers will also continue to adjust and work using self-

checking software when the standards change next school year. We will also look to expand

our software use by using other programs such as Khan Academy and IXL.
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Discussion and Reflection

During this experience I learned to not assume that students know how to use

technology. Having a video ready that shows how to get to assignments from the student

side is helpful for them. The lessons I learned during the facilitation of this project helped

my knowledge of technology in the classroom. I also learned that know matter how

prepared you are there maybe something that you need to add in order to help others

achieve mastery. This experienced did help my team discover options for student practice

that allowed them to use their own time. The feedback that students gained while

completing the practice is also unparalleled in that it gives instant feedback for individual

students that can only be done 1 on 1.

In this experience on of the main standard I feel I achieved was the 2.6 Instructional

Design. I had to develop a plan to use technology-enhanced learning experiences that

reflect research-based best practices in an instructional setting. I would also agree that

with time authentic learning would come out of using the self-checking software. This

experience also challenged my own biases of paperwork over computer work. Although

seeing students work on paper does help me to know if they can do it, computer work is

self-checking so student know they are getting the correct answer instantaneously.

Recommendations

Advice or recommendations I would give to others completing a similar need is that

do not over assign work on the computer. One thing students like was having multiple days

to complete an assignment. Some students would wait till the very last minute to complete

the assignments at first, but after a few weeks students learned that completing a little bit

every day helped them retain information better. Another not is to have a plan to share
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with other teachers do not try to make up an assignment right away and give it to students

in the same day plan ahead for a lesson. Allow students to login before the first assignment

is due or posted. If attempting to use self-checking software set up a practice assignment

before giving an assignment for a grade.

References

Fyfe, E. R., Rittle-Johnson, B., & Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE).

(2015). The timing of feedback on mathematics problem solving in a classroom

setting.  Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness.

Kelly, K., Heffernan, N., Heffernan, C., Goldman, S., Pellegrino, J., & Soffer-Goldstein, D.

(2014). Improving student learning in Math through web-based homework. North

American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics

Education.

Kornell, N. (2014). Attempting to Answer a Meaningful Question Enhances Subsequent

Learning Even When Feedback Is Delayed. Journal of Experimental Psychology:

Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(1), 106–114.

Lin, J.-W., Lai, Y.-C., & Chuang, Y.-S. (2013). Timely diagnostic feedback for database

concept learning. Educational Technology & Society, 16 (2), 228–242.

Şan, İ. & Aykaç, T. (2020). Effect of English language teaching aided by khan academy on

students’ academic success. Cypriot Journal of Educational Science. 15(5), 1107-1116.

https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v15i5.5174

State of Georgia, Govenor's Office of Student Achievement. (2021). Table: Attendance by race

and ethnicity. In Georgia Department of Education, K-12 Public School Report Card.

Retrieved from https://gosa.georgia.gov/report-card