At the same time, the increasing number of applicants to our masters program from overseas students indicates that the use of computers to solve challenging scientific problems is an exciting option for students all over the world, and that our department has already acquired international recognition in this emerging area. The Physics Department is conducting an experiment this semester with computer generated and graded homework. Dr. Herb Shore is collaborating with Dr. Saul Oseroff in our introductory mechanics course Physics 195. The computers that host the homework system are located at the University of Texas in Austin. Students access the system with a web browser using any computer with internet access.
Some problems require numerical answers while others are multiple choice.
An elaborate grading algorithm is employed so that students have several chances to enter the correct answer. After the due date for each problem set, complete explanations for each problem become available. Grades for each student are calculated by the system and are available to the instructor at any time. In the current semester, student participation in the computerized homework program is voluntary, for extra credit. After the semester is over, we will evaluate the experiment and determine whether this approach contributes significantly to student performance in the rest of the course.