Asynchronous Synthetic Groupwork-based Tutorials: Conceptual Gains with the Newton's Third Law Open Source Tutorial

Many students in the United States learn physics asynchronously online, and the number is forecasted to grow. Asynchronous education enables learning of non-conventional students who would otherwise find it prohibitive to learn physics. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, for example, students taking our asynchronous introductory physics courses include parents, full-time employees, military personnel, and learners in rural communities. However, much research-based curriculum revolves around groupwork to enhance student learning, with both theoretical and empirical justification. We have been experimenting with an idea we are calling "Synthetic Groupwork-based Tutorials (SynG-Tuts)", where an individual learner interacts with a pre-recorded video of a group of fictitious classmates discussing their physics ideas (for example, in response to prompts on a guided worksheet-based Tutorial). At each prompt, the video pauses, and the learner is prompted to answer the prompt, potentially agreeing or disagreeing with the synthetic classmates. At key points, the free response prompt is followed by a multiple choice prompt asking the student to select which option best represents what they just typed. The video then jumps to a point appropriate for that multiple choice selection, such that synthetic groupmates respond to the learner's ideas.

At previous AAPT meetings, we have presented our modifications of the Inquiry into Radioactivity (IiR) curriculum for use as a synthetic-groupwork based tutorial (SynG-IiR). This time, we will discuss our latest SynG-Tut, an asynchronous version of the Newton's Third Law Open Source Tutorial. Via pre/post-testing on conceptual understanding of Newton's Third Law, we will compare learning gains with what has been previously published using the original in-person Tutorial.