Education research via WATS may be
conducted with different degrees of intervention
in the learning process. The approach with least
intervention is to look at data generated by
students completing regular assignments.
Essentially, this is passive observation with a
WATS. In one sense, this is a limited type of
observation; the researcher will only have
information about students’ interactions with the
WATS. However, the computer log files will
have a complete, accurate record of this type of
information for all students and all assignments,
so from another perspective this is a very
comprehensive method of observation. A
second approach of conducting research is
through the inclusion of special exercises in the
assignments, which is a limited type of
intervention, since this will appear to the subjects
as part of the regular work. These could include
items from standard diagnostic tests or other
questions to probe students’ knowledge, and
could be either given as separate assignments or
embedded in the regular course work. A third
approach is through the use of surveys and selfreported
data, which represents the greatest level
of intervention by the researcher. For example,
after working a problem the student could be
asked to report in a text box how he/she went
about solving it. The flexibility of the Web
environment means that there are many
combinations and permutations of these means
that could conceivably be used for research.
As an example, Figure 2 presents a result
from an investigation via the first research
method. This is a scatter plot of student
homework scores vs. the number of submissions
for the entire semester of the introductory
engineering physics course. Each correct answer
was worth one point. The vertical line represents
the minimum number of submissions to have
attempted every assignment. (This number—
40—is an approximation; there was some
variation in number of assignments between
sections.) Dots to the right of this represent
students who made enough submissions to have
attempted every assignment. The relationship is
somewhat surprising; the main effect of
increased submissions is elimination of the lowscoring
students. Most students, on average,
attempt an assignment two to three times.
Significant numbers of submissions beyond this
has very little affect on homework scores beyond
reducing the numbers of students with low
scores.