Effects of technologically-rich physics homework: findings from an experimental study

Students’ learning outcomes in physics are significantly affected by the quality of outside-of-classroom learning experiences. A rich source of these experiences may be the physics homework. In this study, the effects of technologically-rich physics homework were evaluated. To that end a pretest-posttest experimental design has been used. 67 first-year students from the First Bosniak Gymnasium were randomly assigned to one of the three homework approaches. In the control group students received conventional homework about work and energy. Within the simulation-based approach students were expected to interact with simulations to investigate work and energy phenomena, whereas in the video-based approach students learned by analyzing a video in which the teacher interacted with the same simulations as mentioned above. Based on analysis of covariance we could find that the between-group differences on the conceptual posttest were not statistically significant, F(2, 47)=0.59, p=0.56. At the same time, students who learned by interacting with simulations expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards homework, compared to students from the video-based group (mean difference=1.88, p=0.038), as well as compared to students from the conventional group (mean difference=2.02, p=0.03). Simulation-based physics homework may be a powerful tool for helping the students to reach important affective learning outcomes.