Improving the Effectiveness of Homework in an Accelerated Summer Courses through Classwork

A novel approach to replace homework with classwork assignments in an accelerated summer course is proposed. The proposed approach uses a hybrid model combining traditional lecture-based and problem-based instructions designed especially for such offering. The proposed hybrid teaching model was implemented in summer 2015 in a senior-level communication systems course. It was demonstrated that this model was able to 1) help students solidify their understanding of the topics being covered, 2) provide students with timely formative feedback, and 3) increase the students’ overall performance and success in the course. To validate these findings, a quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted using statistical assessment methods. Moreover, the model effectiveness was verified by assessing the students’ performance in two different offerings of the same course. Assessment results indicated that the students in the accelerated summer course using the proposed model performed much better than those enrolled in the regular semester offering.