Online university professor inspires student excellence by leveraging Lyryx.
“Students are actually doing their assignments, and not just once, they’re doing them multiple times”
About
Tilly Jensen is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Athabasca University. Jensen completed her doctoral studies at the University of Calgary where she focused on how the use of educational technologies can improve critical thinking skills in accounting students.
The Challenge
Jensen’s department was trying to manage student success in the online space, but they were having difficulty motivating students to complete their assignments. As any instructor of a quantitative subject would attest, practice is key in these fields, and because students were not getting adequate practice, success rates were only 35-50%. After experimenting with a variety of strategies, including the arduous task of hand-grading assignments, Jensen finally landed on Lyryx.
The Solution
By partnering with Lyryx, Jensen has been able to effectively motivate her students to practice the work and complete their assignments. “Students are actually doing their assignments, and not just once, they’re doing them multiple times” says Jensen. Since Lyryx employs algorithmically generated questions, students are given an almost infinite number of variations for each problem, meaning that they stay engaged in the work. The instant feedback provided with these problems completes the learning loop so students are more likely to learn from their mistakes and master the content.
The Result
Jensen notes that the algorithmic feedback provided by the Lyryx homework system has prompted her students to ask much better, more pointed questions. Additionally, her students have become highly motivated since adopting Lyryx. As a result, she’s been able to employ a strategy of “excellence” where if students in her course achieve a minimum overall average of 80% on their homework assignments, 100% is actually awarded for the assignment component of the course. Even though students are not required to go beyond the 80% to achieve a perfect grade, many students still strive to get close to 100% anyway. This has vastly improved student success in Jensen’s department.