Evaluating Proof Blocks Problems as Exam Questions

Poulsen, Seth; Viswanathan, Mahesh; Herman, Geoffrey L.; West, Matthew

doi:10.1145/3446871.3469741

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…An anonymous survey given to these students showed that students felt that Proof Blocks problems accurately represented their ability to write proofs, and that the user interface was easy to use. Full details of this evaluation can be seen in [15].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, over two thirds of respondents agreed with the statements "Proof Blocks accurately represent my understanding of how to write proofs, " and "Proof Blocks would be a good tool for practicing writing proofs. " For more detailed survey results, see [15].…”

Section: User Interfacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, we could have students drag and drop lines of a proof which are mostly prewritten, but have some blanks for the students to fill in, much as Weinman et al have done with their "Faded Parson's Problems" [18] Proof Blocks can increase access to proof knowledge by helping students gain more rapid feedback on the proofs they write. Additionaly, it can improve assessment tools by increasing the types and difficulty levels of questions we can ask students about proofs, and save many hours of instructor grading time which can be reallocated to office hours or other effective means of helping students [15]. There has been some evidence that mathematics is acting as a gatekeeper to learning programming, and that it doesn't actually predict performance in software developers [6].…”

Section: Future Work and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It also provides the necessary scaffolding to help students bridge the gap between seeing others write proofs and writing proofs themselves-reminding students to use good practices such as defining variables before using them and being explicit about the proof techniques being employed. Proof Blocks also provide an opportunity for better student assessment, by providing questions which are, on average, more difficult than multiple choice questions given to students in a typical discrete mathematics course, but easier than free response proof writing questions [15].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Proof Blocks: Autogradable Scaffolding Activities for Learning to Write Proofs

Poulsen,

Viswanathan,

Herman

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Proof Blocks is a software tool which enables students to write proofs by dragging and dropping prewritten proof lines into the correct order. These proofs can be graded completely automatically, enabling students to receive rapid feedback on how they are doing with their proofs. When constructing a problem, the instructor specifies the dependency graph of the lines of the proof, so that any correct arrangement of the lines can receive full credit. This innovation can improve assessment tools by increasing the types of questions we can ask students about proofs, and can give greater access to proof knowledge by increasing the amount that students can learn on their own with the help of a computer.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: User Interfacementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Future Work and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Proof Blocks: Autogradable Scaffolding Activities for Learning to Write Proofs

Poulsen,

Viswanathan,

Herman

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Said differently, we want to proved the students with working examples, not just more worked examples. A good example here is the use of Proof Blocks, 19,20,21 which reinforce the recommended practice of writing proofs by successive refinement rather than line-by-line in order.…”

Section: Structure and Design Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%