Browsing by Author "Neisler, Julie"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Continuous Improvement and Postsecondary Student Success
    (Digital Promise Global, 2019-03) Means, Barbara; Neisler, Julie
    Review of our prior research on the effectiveness of adaptive courseware for Gates Foundation used in introducing our role to colleges participating in Every Learner Everywhere.
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    Evaluation of an Online Tutoring Program in Elementary Mathematics
    (Digital Promise, April 2020) Roschelle, Jeremy; Cheng, Britte Haugan; Hodkowski, Nicola; Neisler, Julie; Haldar, Lina
    Many students struggle with mathematics in late elementary school, particularly on the topic of fractions. In a best evidence syntheses of research on increasing achievement in elementary school mathematics, Pelligrini et al. (2018) highlighted tutoring as a way to help students. Online tutoring is attractive because costs may be lower and logistics easier than with face-to-face tutoring. Cignition developed an approach that combines online 1:1 tutoring with a fractions game, called FogStone Isle. The game provides students with additional learning opportunities and provides tutors with information that they can use to plan tutoring sessions. A randomized controlled trial investigated the research question: Do students who participate in online tutoring and a related mathematical game learn more about fractions than students who only have access to the game? Participants were 144 students from four schools, all serving low-income students with low prior mathematics achievement. In the Treatment condition, students received 20-25 minute tutoring sessions twice per week for an average of 18 sessions and also played the FogStone Isle game. In the Control condition, students had access to the game, but did not play it often. Control students did not receive tutoring. Students were randomly assigned to condition after being matched on pre-test scores. The same diagnostic assessment was used as a pre-test and as a post-test. The planned analysis looked for differences in gain scores ( post-test minus pre-test scores) between conditions. We conducted a t-test on the aggregate gain scores, comparing conditions; the results were statistically significant (t = 4.0545, df = 132.66, p-value < .001). To determine an effect size, we treated each site as a study in a meta-analysis. Using gain scores, the effect size was g=+.66. A more sophisticated treatment of the pooled standard deviation resulted in a corrected effect size of g=.46 with a 95% confidence interval of [+.23,+.70]. Students who received online tutoring and played the related Fog Stone Isle game learned more; our research found the approach to be efficacious. The Pelligrini et al. (2018) meta-analysis of elementary math tutoring programs found g = .26 and was based largely on face-to-face tutoring studies. Thus, this study compares favorably to prior research on face-to-face mathematics tutoring with elementary students. Limitations are discussed; in particular, this is an initial study of an intervention under development. Effects could increase or decrease as development continues and the program scales. Although this study was planned long before the current pandemic, results are particularly timely now that many students are at home under shelter-in-place orders due to COVID-19. The approach taken here is feasible for students at home, with tutors supporting them from a distance. It is also feasible in many other situations where equity could be addressed directly by supporting students via online tutors.
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    Lessons From Remote Learning During COVID-19
    (Digital Promise, 2021-03) Means, Barbara; Peters, Vanessa; Neisler, Julie; Wiley, Korah; Griffiths, Rebecca
    The abrupt transition to remote instruction in response to COVID-19 posed significant challenges for both students and instructors. This report provides data on the prevalence of the different kinds of challenges college students faced during the shift to remote instruction and the nature of spring 2020 courses from the perspectives of both students and instructors. These descriptions are complemented by survey data on the prevalence of online instructional practices that are generally recommended in the online learning literature and analyses of the relationship of these practices to student satisfaction with their course. This report describes findings from two research activities conducted concurrently: a survey of a nationally representative sample of over 1,000 undergraduates who were taking online courses that included in-person meetings when they began and had to switch to entirely remote instruction; and qualitative descriptions of 29 courses offered by 10 institutions, based on interviews and focus groups with students and instructors.
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    Partnering to promote equity and digital learning
    (Digital Promise, 2023-02) Wiley, Korah; Neisler, Julie; Means, Barbara
    This report describes a 15-month collaboration between three Every Learner Everywhere partner organizations (Achieving the Dream, the American Association of Public and Land-grant Universities [APLU], and Digital Promise) and five colleges, all engaged in a research-practice partnership (RPP) around enhancing equity and digital learning in gateway courses. The report describes the key features of research-practice partnerships, the design choices made for this Equity and Digital Learning RPP, the process of establishing the RPP, RPP activities both within and across institutions, and data on student perceptions and academic performance in the target courses before and after the RPP activities.
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    STEM Courses During the COVID Pandemic: Lessons from Spring 2020
    (Digital Promise Global, 2020-12) Means, Barbara; Peters, Vanessa; Neisler, Julie; Griffiths, Rebecca
    The abrupt transition to remote instruction in response to COVID posed significant challenges for both students and instructors. This report provides data on the prevalence of the different kinds of challenges students faced and the ways in which low-income and minoritized students were differentially affected by the shift to remote instruction. It also describes the nature of STEM courses in spring 2020 as they were taught at a distance from the perspectives of both students and instructors. The report offers findings from two research activities conducted concurrently. It discusses a survey of a nationally representative sample of over 650 undergraduates who were taking STEM courses that included in-person meetings when they began and had to switch to entirely remote instruction. It also includes qualitative descriptions of 28 STEM courses offered by nine institutions, based on interviews and focus groups with students and instructors.
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    Suddenly Online: A National Survey of Undergraduates During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (Digital Promise, 2020-07) Means, Barbara; Neisler, Julie; Langer Research Associates
    Digital Promise and Langer Research Associates developed the “Survey of Student Perceptions of Remote Teaching and Learning” to capture the experiences of undergraduates taking courses that transitioned to online instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey explores the nature of college courses as they were taught during the COVID-19 outbreak, the pervasiveness of various challenges undergraduates faced after the transition to remote instruction, and course features associated with higher levels of student satisfaction. Data analyses compared experiences of students from low-income, underrepresented, or rural backgrounds to those of students with none of these characteristics.This survey was administered in the spring of 2020 to a random national sample of 1,008 undergraduates, age 18 and older, who were taking college courses for credit that included in-person class sessions when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and had to finish the course by learning at a distance.
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    Transfer for Future Learning of Fractions within Cignition’s Microtutoring Approach
    (Digital Promise, April 2020) Roschelle, Jeremy; Cheng, Britte Haugan; Hodkowski, Nicola; Haldar, Lina; Neisler, Julie
    In this exploratory research project, our team’s goal was to design and begin validation of a measurement approach that could provide indication of a student’s ability to transfer their mathematics understanding to future, more advanced mathematical topics. Assessing transfer of learning in mathematics and other topics is an enduring challenge. We sought to invent and validate an approach to transfer that would be relevant to improving Cignition’s product, would leverage Cignition’s use of online 1:1 tutoring, and would pioneer an approach that would contribute more broadly to assessment research.
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    Unmasking Inequality: STEM Course Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (Digital Promise, 2020-08) Means, Barbara; Neisler, Julie
    This report describes the experiences of over 600 undergraduates who were taking STEM courses with in-person class meetings that had to shift to remote instruction in spring 2020 because of COVID-19. Internet connectivity issues were serious enough to interfere with students’ ability to attend or participate in their STEM course at least occasionally for 46% of students, with 15% of students experiencing such problems often or very often. A large majority of survey respondents reported some difficulty with staying motivated to work on their STEM courses after they moved online, with 45% characterizing motivation as a major problem. A majority of STEM students also reported having problems knowing where to get help with the course content after it went online, finding a quiet place to work on the course, and fitting the course in with other family or home responsibilities. Overall, students who reported experiencing a greater number of major challenges with continuing their course after it went online expressed lower levels of satisfaction with their course after COVID-19. An exception to this general pattern, though, was found for students from minoritized race/ethnicity groups, females, and lower-income students. Despite experiencing more challenges than other students did with respect to continuing their STEM courses remotely, these students were more likely to rate the quality of their experiences when their STEM course was online as just as good as, or even better than, when the course was meeting in person.