The freshman engineering program at the University of Tennessee consists of two 4 hour courses, Physics for Engineers I and II. The content of these courses is an introduction to engineering physics (approximately the first 20-25 chapters of an introductory engineering physics textbook), and an introduction to elements of successful engineering practice (teamwork, engineering design, and communication). The courses use a customized web-based homework system (Schleter and Bennett, 2006). This system provides individualized homework (Goulet, 2010); each student has the same problem but different parameters. Some of the features of the online homework are that each homework has a direct link to a discussion board, students can save notes for the staff to see when assisting the student through the discussion board, and students can upload images through scans, picture texts, or a sketching utility (Schleter and Bennett, 2011). All homeworks have multiple parts, and answers for each part can be submitted separately. Each part has a 2% penalty for each incorrect answer submitted. In addition, students can earn partial credit for late homework: homework completed after the due date but before the end of the module would earn 75% credit; homework completed after the module but before the end of the semester would earn 50% credit. The basis for this policy is that just because a student did not complete the homework on time does not mean the material is not important, and if they are able to eventually master the material, some credit will awarded. Schilling (2010) suggested that a bonus be given for early homework completion. The analogy was made to a construction project, where there are late penalties, but also bonuses for early completion. Following this suggestion, a 10% bonus for homework completed more than 24 hours before the due date was implemented halfway through the 2010 fall semester, and has been used since then. The late policy was also changed so that there was not a sten-function at the due date, but rather the penalty decreased linearly from 0% to 25% over the first 48 hours after the homework was due. The penalty remained at 25% through the module, and then dropped to 50% after the module. Homework credit vs. time is shown graphically in Figure 1.
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