According to this figure, students space use the practice tool.


San Diego State University

1. RQ1: Do students space or mass their use of the tool? 2. RQ2: Do students use the practice tool more than they were required to? 3. RQ3: Does the practice tool usage correlate with higher final exam grades? 4. Distributions and Correlations 5. End of Course Survey

Analysis and Results (A Spaced, Interleaved Retrieval Practice Tool that is Motivating and Effective)

Ordinary least square regression analysis was used in order to measure the correlation of using practice tool and higher final exam grades Final grade was a dependent variable, these are independent variables which have been used:

**Hours of Using the Practice Tool**  - duration of practicing the question was recorded and total number of hours spent on a practice tool.

**Hours of Studying the E-book** - timer was used to record the time spent on reading the E-book.

**Speed.** - "the number of points earned per hour of working on problem sets."

**Earliness** - "To get a measure of general study habits, we evaluate students’ tendency to procrastinate, or rather its inverse, their earliness in working on problem sets."


RQ3: Does the practice tool usage correlate with higher final exam grades?  (A Spaced, Interleaved Retrieval Practice Tool that is Motivating and Effective)


The most interesting correlation which the authors provide are: 

1. Answering problem sets faster (higher speed) significantly correlated with less studying (r=-.62) and practicing (r=-.49), but not higher final exam grades (r=.127).
2. Earliness (less procrastination) correlated with final exam grades
(r=.301) but not speed (r=.14) or studying hours (r=-.138).
3. More studying correlated with more practicing (r=0.606).

These are the results: 

1. Each extra hour using the practice tool was associated with a 1.04% increase in the final exam score.
2. Each extra hour using the e-book, excluding the practice tool usage, had no significant residual correlation with exam scores.
3. As expected, measures of prior preparation (GPA, Math score)
were positively correlated with exam score, as was earliness.
4. The effect of speed on early problem sets was non-significant
after controlling for other covariates.

Distributions and Correlations (A Spaced, Interleaved Retrieval Practice Tool that is Motivating and Effective)

**Learning**  - students considered that the practice tool had a positive effect on their learning. 

**Spacing Algorithm** - students considered it useful.

**Spacing Feature** - "More importantly, as opposed to previous studies that report students’ dislike of the desirable difficulties, many students in our study found our design of spacing helpful "

**Interleaving Feature** - Students liked this feature, the versatility of the questions.

**Schedule Visualization** - Some students liked, some didn't remember this feature at all.

**Progress Tracker** - Students considered it useful and motivating.

**Other Practice Tools** - Students preferred this practice tool over the Problem Roulett. 

End of Course Survey (A Spaced, Interleaved Retrieval Practice Tool that is Motivating and Effective)

Researchers analyzed whether students used a spaced, interleaved retrieval practice tool after achieving the maximum required points. Results showed that 62 out of 127 students who earned maximum points voluntarily used the tool for at least one additional day.

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