CHIP: Computerized Homework in Physics

Department of Physics at Purdue University in West Lafayette is using a software system called CHIP (Computerized Homework in Physics) to grade homework in two large enrollment physics courses: PHYS 152 (calculus-based mechanics; recitation and laboratory) and PHYS 241 (electricity, magnetism, and optics; recitation). In spring 1998 there are about 3000 student accounts on CHIP; during some weekday nights over 1000 students are working homework on CHIP simultaneously and generating over 50,000 hits on the CHIP server. Students access CHIP through a Web browser, such as Netscape. By using a random number keyed on selected characters of a student's CHIP login name, homework problems can be programmed to have numerical answers which are unique for each student. Students may submit answers to several parts of a question at once for grading, and credit for correct responses is entered into an integrated gradebook. Within a few seconds students know whether their answers are correct. Before CHIP (and its predecessor), the homework sets were only partially graded or marked as handed in without grading, resulting in many students working very few of the homework problems correctly. With CHIP, typically 98% of the students work all the homework problems. Score normalization is no longer necessary.