In Spring of 2024, Josh Samani, a beloved award-winning Physics professor at UCLA launched CourseKata's first set of physics materials: Physics for Life Scientists -- Thermodynamics, Fluids, Sound, and Light. Ever the datahead, Professor Samani surveyed students about their reading behaviors when he used his "old" textbook as well as the "new" CourseKata textbook.
Before CourseKata, a generous reading of the data would say that 46% of students reported completing 20% of the readings (less generously, they said they completed 0-20% of the readings!). After CourseKata, that number dropped to 3% of students and the vast majority (85%) of students reported reading 80-100% of the readings!
Most textbooks are written assuming that students won't read… and thus they don't read. There is both too much (unnecessary content) and not enough (reasons to actually read). The higher reading rates reflect how Professor Samani's effort to tailor content and embed relevant questions in CourseKata's materials made the material immediately useful for students.
More than just reading the textbook, over 65% of students reported completing the readings before lecture and about half the students read every word and took notes. Only 19% reported focusing mostly on completing embedded questions. But even this metric can now be improved with CourseKata's research platform.
Professor Samani noted, "Very encouraging! Perhaps not totally surprising given the embedded questions and the fact that they knew I wrote it so that everything was completely relevant, but I was still impressed by just how many students self-reported doing the reading now."
CourseKata Physics shows how learning science, technology, and a passion for student learning can transform the mundane experience of homework readings for students. CourseKata Physics is one more step towards helping all students learn hard things! For instructors interested in exploring CourseKata, request an instructor login and you can preview all our books (including Physics) at CourseKata.org and experience the difference in teaching when your students do the readings!
