SUPPORTING STUDENT AGENCY FOR LEARNING IN AN INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE COURSE

We adapted our Introductory Physical Geology course to encourage student agency, the ability of participating students to actively manage their learning. This was accomplished, in part, by dedicating the majority of the course grades (55%) to mastery-oriented activities completed outside of class meetings with the remainder of the grade from four exams. Students could attempt the mastery activities an unlimited number of times with only their highest score contributing to the course grade. The course was divided into twelve topics which featured two types of mastery activities; 1) pre-class learning journals made up of a video lesson matched with several questions; and, 2) summative quizzes that featured questions matched with topic learning objectives. Quiz questions were randomized from a large pool, ensuring that students rarely saw the same question twice. In contrast, the learning journal questions did not change on repeated attempts and focused on just one or two basic concepts. Our goal was to “build in” these required activities to have students to utilize effective study strategies such as distributed learning and practice testing throughout the course.

Student performance varied based on several behavioral factors, suggesting variable degrees of agency among the sample population. While students had the opportunity to make several attempts at the learning journals and quizzes to maximize their scores, only a handful of students in the course did so. Overall, however, more than a third of students earned 90% or higher on their learning journals and nearly a quarter had a similar grade on the topic quizzes. Analysis of the timing, frequency, and length of the learning journal attempts revealed that students who either; 1) completed the learning journals more than 24 hours before the time they were due; or, 2) made more than one attempt; or, 3) took more than 10 minutes to complete the attempt, all generally scored better than those who made one relatively brief attempt in the hours before the deadline. Students’ total scores in the course were correlated to exam, learning journal, and quiz scores, with the latter having the strongest influence. In sum, these results suggest that providing students with agency and allowing them to take ownership of their learning has a positive impact on their performance.