Dive Brief:

• Making a few simple changes to homework assignments can lead to improved student performance, according to a study by Rice University and Duke University.
• The study examined homework and exam scores for an upper-level undergraduate engineering course at Rice.
• Students with the new and improved homework assignments scored about 7% higher on final exams.

Dive Insight:

Basically, the study shows that more homework and better feedback on that homework are two factors that improve student performance. The study, which appears this week in the Educational Psychology Review journal, had students switch between two homework styles. The first approach was one homework assignment per week, graded and returned the following week. The second approach, which was better, incorporated repeated retrieval, where students were given follow-up problems in two assignments added to the original assignment; spacing those problems over three weeks of assignments; and providing immediate feedback on the homework.