OWL feedback from Jennie Mayer’s Chem 140 (now 161) course in Spring 2008

Survey question: OWL was in a new edition with some errors and frustrations (for both instructors and students). However, did you find the use of OWL beneficial at all? Did it help in your learning of concepts? Overall, did you like having access to an online tutorial system like OWL? Or do you think you would have done as well with just problems from the textbook?

Responses (each one begins with the number ‘1’)

1 Even though I didn't do the OWL, due the quality of the code, I do think it *could* be a valuable resource, if it just had a better interface. I suspect that with a better interface, OWL could probably produce better results on some things than the textbook. Probably on everyting except math. I think there is no substitute for repeatedly solving math problems with pencil and paper.

1 I definitely liked owl because it was a good learning tool. Some people may have been frustrated with all the assignments but it helped me learn and grasp the concepts.

1 I did find it useful in preparing me for some topics. For a majority of problems it was nice to see an approach map laid out and to have feedback on the problems. The only thing I hated was when you were stuck on a question, the hints kept repeating themselves over at a point and so I\'d be stuck on a step and have to skip the question because the hint didn\'t help.

1 I did find OWL beneficial; especially the ones with 3-d graphics, movies, and buttons where you could do the experiments many different ways. Both the repetition and the simple practicing of problems contributed to my understanding.

1 I feel that OWL was a great way to learn the material that was not understood in class by the teacher or if I could not figure something out. Some parts of the OWL took way to long, and did not catch the same common mistakes I was making and it took an excessive amount of time to complete sometimes. But if you had a partener to help you and guide it would be easier.

1 I found OWL a bit frustrating. It\'s great if you want an online tool to review for upcoming tests, but we have a textbook for a reason. Why didn\'t we use the textbook questions to turn in? I think if this was an online class, OWL is a great tool. I\'m just old school, I guess.

1 I found the use of OWL to be very beneficial. It helped me learn the concepts greatly. I think the OWL was a much better resource than a textbook becuase if you didnt understand the problem in OWL, it actually told you how to do it. A textbook doesnt do that for every problem.

1 I learn many things from the OWL. For example, after I learned from the class ans I could used OWL to practice the conception. It halped me to get used to know what kind of concepts i need to used.

1 I like OWL becuase it was helpful to me when I didn't know concepts in textbook. OWL helped me through many problems.

1 i liked OWL a lot. it's like go through all the material class again with lot different type of questions. if there was no respect to do like OWL i might lost because i don't practice question about the material. even if there's lot of errors still there's more thing the i got benefit from OWL.

1 I liked OWL, but I didn't use it too much , besides doing the homework assigned. But the chapters I did study from OWL were really nice, because they took you through a problem step by step. The only problem was when it became kind of specific about how to write down a formula, and it was sometimes harder to write down the formula as was told.

1 I liked OWL\'s immediate feedback alot. Although some of the excercises were frustrating (mainly those that required 2 out of 3 correct in a single try).

1 I liked the owl modules, it helped me more than purely reading the book. I think I would have done worse with only textbook problems.

1 I liked the tutors alot, I think that helped but the rest was kind of a pain in the but because of the way you had to enter the information but it was well organized and making it worth pionts helped me learn.

1 I LOVED Owl. It really helped me understand how to solve problems because it helped you step by step. When I finished answering the practice questions on the book, I could hop online and have more practice. Sometimes, the problem on the textbook will not make sense to me, but I'll try it out on Owl and understand it.

1 I really liked OWL over the textbook. The in-question help they supplied was really nice when I needed to figure something out step-by-step. I hardly ever did problems out of the book because OWL was so much better at explaining!

1 I really liked OWL. Although, there weer some problems. Overall, I felt that OWL was a handy tool. It allowed us to review and go over topics that we had trouble wiht. It also gave a step by step stragedy to solve each type of problem which was quite helpful. However, I felt that it would be better if OWL was optional because we already had plenty of problems from the textbook, OWL took me quite some time to finish. I think it would have been better if it was optional rather than required. That way people who need help can always use OWL and people who do not need help don't have to waste time on OWL.

1 I really liked OWL. I usually had no time to study, but since OWL was required, I did it and learned alot. It was nice to see how they solved problems and learn how to use such techniques. Since I tend to be lazy, I think it is good to have OWL required because it motivates students.

1 I really liked using OWL because several modules were written in a way that helped me bettter understand the material we were covering in class. I think OWL is more interesting and more fun to use than problems from the textbook.

1 I think out of everything OWL helped me the most. The only part I liked were the tutor modules... all the other ones took way too long and made me frustrated. The tutors were nice because they showed you step by step how to solve the problems.

1 i think owl was a really great learning tools. It gave explanations about some materials attractively, also it was a good place to review some materials which I didn't understand.

1 I think OWL was by far the best part of the course, because it really motivated me to get those problems done. I really thought it was very beneficial and would have probably done much worse in the class without it. Some of the owl modules aren't very well designed, but overall the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.

1 I think the OWL work was very helpful because it gave both tutorials of how to do certain problems, and then forced us to retain that learning in order to solve problems of a similar nature. I think that book problems have their place, and that when a teacher has access to a site like OWL it would be a waste not to use it considering how much time it takes to grade papers by hand and the waste of paper involved.

1 It is really useful because if you try to do it without any help at all on your first time, it will surely make you grasp the concept.

1 It's a really good materials for this class, it shows you that which part u are week and which part you should improve. Although it takes like two to three hours to finish it. However, u have done the review of last week.

1 Overall OWL was helpful. If I didn't know how to do a type of problem the tutor modules were helpful. Also, it was helpful to answer a question incorectly to see how to do it. The most frustrating part of OWL was that the directions do not say how to format the answer. Is there any way to make a suggestion to the makers of OWL to include formatting instructions on each module?

1 Overall, I felt that OWL was beneficial. It helped in learning concepts as well as mastering them. I liked having the use of an online tutorial system. This in conjunction with practice problems from the text, helped me succeed in this class.

1 OWL is useful for sure. It help me. I like OWL expect some time I hate it too. I will be wrong if I put one more space! And then I need to do the thing over again....

1 OWL is very beneficial especially for students that find boring doing the problems from the texbook. I liked it because it forced me to do the problems and keep trying until I could get it right, and it becomes like a game in a good way.

1 Owl was actually really useful. I didnt have a chem book and the owl questions did a pretty good job of teaching concepts. it also sort of force you to memorize formulas since some problems had very picky and answers and any little typo force you to redo the whole question again. some times many times...

1 Owl was actually very helpful for some of the topics learned in the class. I say some because others, like chapter 6, were presented in a way that I could not for the life of me figure out how to complete some problems. Since we don't really lecture to much in class it was a helpful tool to better understand the concepts being taught in class.

1 OWL was definately beneficial to my learing and application of the learned material. It makes you keep up with the material even if you don't read the chapters being covered in class. Yes there were a few problem units. In order to prevent issues like this in the future, there should be like 12 possible points or so points out of 10 each week, so that if there is a problem unit other ones can be attempted, however to prevent too much extra credit, still tell students only 10 points will be rewarded no matter how much was completed. That would have worked much better. However, the instructor was very prompt on returning emails, so there weren't too many issues with the OWL homework.

1 OWL was definitely good because there were detailed tutorial so that I could easily understand the hard materials. However, it was frastrating that just typing mistake gave me some mistake and I needed to start over the problem with different value. And, I never studied OWL for the exams because it was easier to review foe the problems in the book.

1 The one thing that i think was beneficial with OWL was that if you got something wrong then it would guide you to the right answer. The thing that i really did not like about OWL is the FORMATTING!!!!! I can hardly express how frustrated i would get with how every answer had to be in perfect format. There were so many times where i had the correct answer but OWL counted it wrong...and then i would have to go through the entire set of problems again. perhaps next time you could have them program in a bit of leneiancy into the program.

1 The OWL is definitely helpful, it is very likely to gain knowledge from the OWL, but some of the modules are a little bit confusing.

1 The OWLs saved my life! They went through everything step by step and which made it an awesome learning tool. It's great to see where you made errors and have the instructions of how to fix them immediate and concise. I found that OWL was an essential piece of my learning in the class.

1 YES!!! OWl was awesome! I think it helped me understand concepts waaaay better than the book. The text book was so dense and written in a confusing manner.

1 Yes, it help me a lot. But is is too expensive. Yes, i like Owl.

1 I like this style of homework, since i don't need to wait for the teacher to correct it (teacher always takes lots of time to correct WHOLE class of hw, the work load is too much, Main point is it takes time) In OWL, you can know what's wrong with your answer after you finish it, then you can improve it by reading the correct answer. If we really need help, we can contact you by many ways(OWL, Moodle, your MSN, e-mail... [Great support!!!]) if we want to improve more. the questions in the back will be one of the best choice.

1 I prefer OWL to textbook problems. Better feedback.

1 I would use OWL if I had a choice in a future chemistry class, I think it was helpful and I learned more from my mistakes than I ever could have with just a textbook

1 Yes, I liked to use it. it was fun and easy to understnad some experiments also. in addition the tutoring questions were also helpful to understand the process of solutions.

1 I hink the OWL had some errors, so I spant time for that. however, I could learn alot form the OWL also.

1 I enjoyed learning from OWL. I dont like to ask people for help because I feel that I may be bothering them, so having a virtual tutor and extra problems was wonderful. It also saves paper. Therefore, I would use OWL again if offered in the future.

1 I like it as homework. I like it because I will know I am worng right the way and I can do it again right the way. The tutoria system help me learing things. I will like to use it again but I still think the OWL company need to make OWL easier to use.

1 I would not mind either way.. I like both but I feel owl is a hands on way to learn all the concepts at the click of a button!

1 I would use the OWL system if it was offered for a class again. I felt that OWL was a great tool because it actually told you step by step how to do the problem if you didnt know how to do it. Although textbooks are very helpful, I would use OWL in addition to the textbook to succeed in class.

1 I've already answered this question (#4). But yes, the OWL was very helpful and I would definitely use it again for future classes if I had the choice. This actually motivated me to solve the problems, whereas the textbook problems were optional.

1 It was a pain in the butt trying to keep up with studying, lab, owl, other classes..but overall, owl really helped me. If I don't understand something, I hop on owl to see how to solve the equation step by step, the fact that you can access the internet almost anywhere.. you don't have to carry your heavy chemistry book around.. and of course, it helps with your grades. You get points for doing owl and it really helps you get a better grade. I would definetly use owl in my future courses. I hope Chem 150 has somewhat of an OWL thing too.

1 Owl was good as a homework to understand the material, but I wouldn't use OWL for preparation for exams because it was kind of complicated.

1 OWL was good for me. Above all, I didn't know exactly about ch.7 but I could get the contents through OWL. I like an online homework.

1 OWL was really good for me. i love to do OWL.

1 even if i don't totally understand about a question it explain how to solve the problem and there's guideline to help, but like text book problem usually don't have enough explanations on the back with answers so it's hard to understand better. even if my chem150 professior is not gonna have homework from OWL i will do OWL to just help my chemistry study.

1 I felt OWL was a great help, however, it was quite difficult. I thought it was more harder than most of the problem we did in class. At the same time, I took a long time to complete, for me, at least. For me, it added more to the stress we already had in the class. I really liked the idea of OWL but I felt it would be benefical it it was optional so that poeple who need help always have OWL to refer to. I would use OWL again in the future becuase it is very useful even though it might be difficult at times. Overall, its a good helpful tool.

1 I found kind of frustrated trying to put the chemical formulas because it takes a long time, but OWL definately helps as a different option material. I like the old-fashion way because can also be time-consuming, so I would not like OWL for a Math class.

1 I like owl more than the text book problems I like how interactive it is and I like the tutorials and videos and how they show you how to do things and then you have to figure them out step by step if you have problems.

1 I liked having OWL as homework because it offered new ways to learn the same material - which is very helpful for me. I liked that it was online because I could access it anywhere and do little bits of it at a time. I would definitely use OWL for other classes because it really helped me learn some of the more complicated concepts from this quarter, and it was much more interesting and interactive than textbook problems.

1 I liked owl homework. it was similar to problems i would expect from the end of the book. tutor problems were very useful when you had no idea what the question was asking for.

1 I liked OWL. It has ways of teaching that you can't get out of textbook questions. The more ways to take in information, the better the chance of it sticking for me!

1 i loved having an online tutorial system available as a different option for learning chemistry. It really helped me understand the material and i would definitely use it in the future if i had a choice.

1 I loved it, I wouldn't change it. OWL is great!

1 i really liked the fact that i would guide you through the process if you got the answer wrong. i really did not like the fact that IT WAS SO FREAKIN TEDIOUS!!!!

1 I think I already responded to this above. I think it would be a better use of time to use the textbook and turn in questions from the book for hw. OWL should be an optional choice, since it is not an online course. I knwo that one perk of OWL were the Flash modules,but more often than not, they did not work. OWL would be great as a study tool for tests.

1 I think OWL should be used for the tutor modules only. On the other modules all I would do is check the answer, see how they solved it, plug in my numbers, and get an answer. The tutor ones actually made you go through the process step by step, and I think that really helps.

1 I think systems like OWL are the way forward, other than for the math (dimensional analysis). I am concerned because OWL relies too heavily of MS Windows only software. They should use Qt/KDE clients that will run on any platform, but communicate over the Internet to a central server. That will also remove all the state & interface obstacles they are trying (poorly) to hack around. That (or something like that) is the only way to overcome the problems in OWL. You don't build a house with a child's toy hammer. OWL has tortured http to its limits--it needs to be rebuilt with the proper tools. In some sense, it is a badge of honor for your software to fail this way, as it can mean you have outgrown your initial architecture.

1 I think that having required OWL homework was very useful and I would definitely use it in the future. It covers all the topics from the book and gives more detailed answers as to how to do the problems than the text does. I think if you can understand and do the OWL problems, you will not have too much difficulty in the class.

1 I would definately want to use OWL for motivation to keep up on the coursework. Although it was annoying at the time, it was so useful, because i didn't get so far behind in the material- because i was forced to learn it to complete the OWL online homework. It is good practice, especially because i'm not a big fan of the textbook. I would much rather do the online problems than problems out of the textbook.

1 I would probably stick to the questions in the book but do the tutors

1 I would rather use owl than do textbook problem as it have more types of problem with the solution if we got it wrong, that way we know where is our mistake.

1 I would use OWL and the questions at the back of the book. It was a good interactive program, and at times it was difficult, but it was overall a good practice.

1 It has it\'s ups and downs. At times it was useful and other times, it was just stressul and irritating. I wouldn\'t mind using OWL in future courses.

1 Overall, OWL provided a balanced approach to homework. I liked that an online homework system was available and I made sure to utilize this along with problems from the text. Both the textbook and OWL provided me with a plethora of homework problems, and both were vital in my learning.

1 What it comes down to is that I like learning material the way it is going to be presented on the tests. That involves wording that you may use that owl does not, the way the problems are set up may be different as well. Overall owl was helpful in solidifying the basics that I needed extra work on. But it did not prepare me for exams and quizzes the way I wish it had. I would use owl again, but maybe assigning some problems from the book that were a little more challenging, like ones that would be on a test would be the way to go.

1 While I really loved OWL, I think that as a lone homework source it didn't have enough unique problems to really help cement ideas in the brain. Most of the concepts only had about 3-6 problems and the introductory ones were usually only one problem and that's it. I really liked when you had in-class problems to do at home, and definitely think that working in class on some and assigning the rest, along with OWL, would have gotten more of the algebra of chemistry in my head.

1 Yes, but some part it is hard to write equation on OWL.

1 No

1 Yes, it is helpful.