Evaluating Student Autonomy and Competence in a College Classroom

(Poster Proposal)

At the time of the Conference, we anticipate having analyzed data collected this semester. The research project is designed to measure student autonomy and competence in a college classroom.

Research Question 1: Do students who are prepared for class beforehand with the command of glossary terms exhibit higher motivation and performance?

Hypothesis: Students who complete and perform well on the glossary quiz (above 80% of the total completed quiz scores) will perform better than those who did not complete or who did not do well on the quiz (below 80%).

Research Question 2: Does student autonomy in the completion of optional (supplementary) content-based quizzes influence students’ performance in the college classroom?

Hypothesis: Students who voluntarily complete a quiz will perform better than students who are required to complete the quiz.

Research Question 3: Do students who complete more attempts of the quiz put more effort into their study and use more study strategies?

Hypothesis: Students will have an unlimited number of attempts for glossary quizzes. The average score of the multiple attempts will be the final score of the quiz. We hypothesize that students who take the quiz more times than those who take less attempts or do not take the quizzes at all, will have put more effort into their study voluntarily and use more study strategies and perform better.