Click, Watch, Learn: The Impact of Student Self-Study Materials on Physics E&M Course Outcomes

TL;DR

This study evaluates how open-access self-study materials, including videos and old exams, influence student performance and perceptions in a calculus-based physics course, highlighting the importance of prior preparation and resource utilization.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the positive impact of supplemental self-study resources on student outcomes and engagement in physics education.

Findings

Prior math preparation strongly predicts performance.

Use of old exams improves student outcomes.

First-generation students benefit from supplemental resources.

Abstract

Performance in introductory courses, particularly physics, is often crucial for student success in STEM majors and can impact an individual's tendency to persist in their chosen field. To enhance students' individual learning experiences, faculty at many universities have worked to develop open-access, self-study materials to help build conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. Faculty at Texas A&M University have contributed to these efforts, creating more than 200 online video resources and a broad bank of prior exams available to students. This work explores and measures the impact that these resources can have on student course outcomes in an introductory, calculus-based electricity and magnetism course. Data were collected from three fall semesters, 2021-2023, including classroom performance, a conceptual assessment, and relevant university level data to contextualize student background and pre-class abilities. Similar to prior studies, we found that relevant prior preparation in mathematics was the strongest predictor of student performance, with prior physics knowledge being a weaker but still statistically significant predictor. Students' utilization of supplemental old exams was the second highest predictor of student performance. First generation students were observed to have a slightly lower average performance on exams. However, interaction terms in the regression models indicated that first generation students using supplemental old exams were able to close this gap. Through anonymous surveys, students reported warm impressions of the materials, with over 80 per cent of students sharing that they had a noticeable contribution to their learning outside of the classroom and 98 per cent stating they would recommend them to their peers.