Smarter Homework

The University of Illinois has been at the forefront of computer-aided instruction, homework, and assessment from the pioneering PLATO system in the early 1960's, and remain leaders in content delivery and assessment research. They’ve leveraged this expertise in designing the smartPhysics homework system.

What makes smartPhysics homework better?

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• Standard Exercises (SE) feature a main problem with a number of parts, and use short answer (numerical or algebraic input), multiple choice/select, and essay response (stored but not graded) question formats.
  • Standard Exercise feedback is based on the authors' systematic analysis of past student responses, including incorrect answers, and the reasoning behind those answers. They've used this knowledge to design the feedback given to new students working on the same problems.
  • The "Delayed feedback" option lets instructors withhold feedback on specific problems until the assignment deadline passes an excellent, research-supported indicator of student performance on exams.
  • Complete Problem History allows students to see the submissions, plus associated feedback and comments.
• Interactive Examples (IEs) are Socratic-style tutorial-based homework problems whose "help" comes in the form of more questions. These problems have been widely used across North America and have been very effective in teaching students concepts and problem-solving methods.

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Constructed in the same format as the smartPhysics PreLectures, these tutorials offer step-by-step problem solving help that goes beyond traditional worked examples found in textbooks and media. Click here to see a sample.

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smartPhysics allows you to create your own homework problems, or edit ours. You can use our simple web interface to write your own problems or modify some of ours.