Alternatives to Mastering Physics in teaching E&M and Optics

[physicsworks]

This coming winter I am teaching a calculus-based intro physics class for non-physics science majors. The class historically uses the classic University Physics text by Young and Freedman, which I am OK with. Usually, for my classes I write my own sets of homework problems, however, in winter I will have almost no TA support when it comes to grading in a class of >200 students and therefore am almost forced to use something like Mastering Physics, which, again, is what historically has been the choice for teaching this class.

I have personally never used Mastering Physics as an instructor, but have heard it has a very bad reputation among students and teachers. Now, maybe that has changed recently and they are doing a better job (please let me know if that is so), but are there any alternatives to MP, given the choice of textbook for this class?

I have heard of FlipItPhysics being a cheaper and a somewhat better option than Mastering Physics. Has anyone had experience of using both FIP and MP and can tell which one is better for students? Are there any other better alternatives? Thanks!

 

[kuruman]

This coming winter I am teaching a calculus-based intro physics class for non-physics science majors. The class historically uses the classic University Physics text by Young and Freedman, which I am OK with. Usually, for my classes I write my own sets of homework problems, however, in winter I will have almost no TA support when it comes to grading in a class of >200 students and therefore am almost forced to use something like Mastering Physics, which, again, is what historically has been the choice for teaching this class.

I have personally never used Mastering Physics as an instructor, but have heard it has a very bad reputation among students and teachers. Now, maybe that has changed recently and they are doing a better job (please let me know if that is so), but are there any alternatives to MP, given the choice of textbook for this class?

I have heard of FlipItPhysics being a cheaper and a somewhat better option than Mastering Physics. Has anyone had experience of using both FIP and MP and can tell which one is better for students? Are there any other better alternatives? Thanks!

I started using FlipItPhysics as soon as it came out and loved it. I continued using it in my intro courses until I retired seven years ago. I found it more versatile than Mastering in the sense that you can create your own homework problems, provide your own solutions and trap common errors (e.g. forgetting to square in $\frac{1}{2}mv^2$ or using sine instead of cosine) so that you can provide some feedback to the student.

The idea behind FlipIt is that students are exposed to the course material through video lectures about 25 min. long. At times the video pauses and students are expected to answer a multiple choice question to test their comprehension before proceeding. At the end, they answer a set of additional questions, the most important of which is "What did you find most difficult in this lecture and what would you like to see me go over in class?" Answering these questions was counted as assigned homework and was due a couple of hours before class. That gave me time to look over the responses and choose what to go over and what to omit.

As with any teaching tool, it worked well with students who were motivated to learn and not very well with those who aren't. I could easily separate the two kinds by looking at their analytics. Students who spent less than three minutes on a 25 min. video lecture, answering each multiple choice comprehension question sequentially a, b, c, d until they got one right and then told me that they wanted me to go over "everything" in lecture were not interested in learning. In every class, there was always a dissatisfied minority who disliked FlipIt I think because it shifted some of the burden of their education on their shoulders. One final thing. If you adopt FlipIt, be prepared to be accused of being lazy because "you rely on someone else's videos to do your teaching." As if spending your time in front of them explaining what they told you they don't understand is talking about the weather.