ASSISTments

SUMMARY

ASSISTments (Heffernan & Heffernan, 2014) is a free, web-based homework system that provides feedback during and after problem solving. Students in this group worked on a total of 9 problem sets (approximately 18 problems per set) that covered content from arithmetic operations, order of operations, fractions, factoring, distribution, and linear equations. The problems are selected and adapted from three middle school mathematics curricula (i.e., Engage New York, Utah Middle School Math Project, and Illustrative Math) so they are representative of the problems students may solve in the classroom and in their homework assignments.

Procedure

Students spent 30 minutes per session working on a problem set at their own pace. They worked on the math problems for 25 minutes, then reviewed the problems and their answers for the remainder of the time. They accessed the problem set by logging into ASSISTments (on a Chrome browser) and selecting the homework assignment for the day.

Hints & Answer

During problem-solving, students may have requested hints and seen the correct answer if they were stuck on the problem. They also received correctness feedback after each attempt.

The study showed that with the use of ASSISTments:

• Teachers targeted class time to student difficulties and errors

• Students had significantly higher end-of-year mathematics achievement

• Online homework had greater impact for students with low prior achievement