"STEM Fluency": Expanding the Effectiveness, Relevance, Equity, and Accessibility of Online Learning of Essential STEM Skills

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving students' mastery of critical STEM skills in introductory physics courses. Students often struggle with relatively basic STEM skills used in introductory physics, such as algebra, trigonometry, and vector math, which are necessary for success in STEM majors. This project aims to address this issue by expanding "STEM Fluency," an existing online learning application that helps students become more fluent with such critical skills. Instructors have already used "STEM Fluency" with over 20,000 physics students at Ohio State University and have shown that it significantly improves students' accuracy and speed in basic introductory physics skills there. This project will take the next step. Using education research methods, the investigators will expand "STEM Fluency" to reach more students at more universities and community colleges and will create more content to cover both semesters of the introductory physics sequence. This work will help a broader range of students across the country -- including students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), students at community colleges, students with less STEM preparation, and students with disabilities -- to be successful in university-level introductory physics, which is a key gateway course for many STEM careers. The overall aim of the project is to improve, expand, assess, and document the effectiveness of online mastery learning of basic STEM skills, via the "STEM Fluency" platform, for more diverse contexts, populations, and content material. The project's goals include (1) implementing "STEM Fluency" with new populations of students in different institutional settings (including South Carolina State University, Hampton University, Columbus State Community College, and several regional campuses of Ohio State University); (2) expanding the platform's content to serve second-semester physics courses and to incorporate effective practices from cognitive psychology and discipline-based education research; (3) improving the accessibility of the platform and the materials; and (4) collecting and analyzing data on students' performance and motivational factors and using that data to iteratively improve the platform and materials. The expanded and improved version of "STEM Fluency" will include a full two-semester set of research-based, highly effective mastery assignments for introductory algebra-based and calculus-based physics. The expansion will also include the possibility of integrating "STEM Fluency" into common learning management systems, such as Canvas and Blackboard. The NSF IUSE: EDU program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.