Students Perception and Effectiveness of Homework in Higher Education

Marra Sigler*, Taniya Chawla, and Kimberly Meigh, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Field (Broad Category): Physical/Occupational Therapy, Speech Language Pathology & Audiology (Behavioral & Social Sciences) 

Student’s Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders 

The aim of this study was to determine if homework increased graduate SLP students’ accuracy and efficiency in completing a diagnostic voice examination and clinical note. Homework has been traditionally viewed as beneficial to students; however, the type of homework may vary the overall benefit to student and instructor. Despite the surge of interest in clinical simulations as a training mechanism, there is little evidence to suggest that hands-on experience using extra practice, or homework, will result in beneficial educational outcomes for graduate student clinicians. Twenty-seven participants were randomly assigned to a homework or no-homework group. Homework consisted of using SONA-II voice software to collect and analyze voice data, as well as practice in interpreting data to write a clinical note. Timing was controlled for all presentations of the software: initial presentation to all groups, extra practice for the homework group, and a post-test condition for all groups. During post-testing, all participants were given a new case study, where they were required to use the software to generate data that would be analyzed and written as a clinical note. The following variables were analyzed: number of hesitations and mouse clicks during software use, the amount of time using the software and writing the clinical note, and the accuracy of data in the clinical note. Results are pending but trends suggest homework is effective at increasing efficiency in using clinical software and aiding interpretations in clinical writing. These results suggest homework influences positive learning outcomes in graduate students' clinical education. 

Funding:  Teaching and Learning Commons 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU 497-level course