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Abstract Title: Characteristics Of Pairs Of Questions That Students Answer Similarly
Abstract: We discover pairs of questions (items) that students answer in a dependent manner by applying Fisher's Exact Test to a sample of 1080 students answering 257 items in the MOOC 8MReVx. To eliminate false positives arising from the large range of student abilities, we divided students into groups of similar ability by: 1) similar percentage correct on first try (CFT) of all available problems, 2) similar percentage CFT of problems attempted, and 3) similar skills determined by Item Response Theory. All three methods dramatically reduce the number of false dependencies in a similar fashion. Importantly, using 5 groups 70% (vs. 5% without groups) of dependent pairs of items have identical ratings in all four categories of the Taxonomy of Introductory Physics Problems, 70% (vs. 23%) are of the same pedagogical type, 45% (vs. <1%) are items in the same problem, and 100% (vs. 12%) reside in the same course Chapter.
Abstract Type: Contributed Poster Presentation

Author/Organizer Information

Primary Contact: Trevor A Balint
George Washington University Department of Physics
725 21st St.
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-6275
Co-Author(s)
and Co-Presenter(s)
Raluca Teodorescu, George Washington University Department of Physics
Kimberly Colvin, University at Albany SUNY Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology
Youn-Jeng Choi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Physics
David E. Pritchard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Physics