Web-Based Homework Assignments for Introductory Physics Courses

In this work, we investigated the use of online homework in teaching introductory physics courses at United Arab Emirates University. The online homework assignments were conducted by “mastering physics” course managing system. Students had unlimited time for each question within the due date. They also received hints and feedback to correct their answers. The average grade for all homework’s for each student has been calculated and classified according to the time spent in solving the homework. The time spent spans over an interval of time 0-800 minutes, and a Gaussian distribution for the time interval was observed with a peak at 300-400 minutes. It showed that students spent short time got a homework grade below 60% of the total grade; on the other hand students spent longer time achieved grades above 60%. The results were found to be correlated with students’ scores achieved in traditional written tests.