Are Online Homework Sites Replacing Worksheets?

Art+credits+to+Johann+Cordasco%21

Art credits to Johann Cordasco!

Navya Yemula ’18

Today, the internet is a resource that allows billions around the world to benefit, whether to research a subject or to pay a bill. Besides social networking, one common reason the internet is used is for online homework sites. Several sites such as MasteringPhysics, eduCanon, and WebAssign allow students to access web pages, videos, databases, etc. in order to help them study and complete homework assignments. Meanwhile at school, teachers distribute worksheets on paper. Teachers may spend hours creating the worksheets, copying and handing them out, yet, to a certain extent, homework sites are more effective than these worksheets.

There is a plethora of websites, specifically, MasteringPhysics and WebAssign that juniors and seniors at Ridge utilize. According to many users, these sites are extremely helpful due to their ability to give immediate feedback and offer many practice problems. One senior at Ridge, Rana Shahani ’16, believes that “they’re good practice right before tests and quizzes.”

Test and quiz grades are crucial to achieving good grades, therefore by helping students earn good grades, these sites prove their potential. WebAssign, MasteringPhysics, and Educanon all provide students access to material that may not necessarily be given in class. Students who utilize these websites have a better chance of receiving good grades on tests and quizzes.

Unfortunately, many argue that specific sites are not as beneficial to use. Alekha Kolli ‘16 states, “Last year I used MasteringPhysics and it did not help at all.” She further explained that her physics course was extremely tough, and MasteringPhysics was unable to aid her in studying as well as she would have liked. However, though homework sites are not perfect, they still provide more aid than traditional worksheets. In some cases, teachers hand out less worksheets, yet these sites still continue to give practice. With the constant availability of the internet, educational websites like WebAssign and EduCanon ensure that students have supplemental materials to study for their courses.

Students receive the ability to learn and enrich themselves outside of the classroom from homework sites. This is very important to the learning process because when teachers are unable to cover material during class, the student can use these sites to find extra homework online and absorb any extra information. On WebAssign, users answer questions and complete mini-quizzes. Once finished with those, they can see their score online with feedback about the question. Filling out worksheets does not give feedback about answers (i.e. why they were incorrect). In this way, homework sites are more effective because they interact with the user. Interaction instills information into users and lets high-achieving individuals improve their knowledge on topics presented during class.

Overall, homework sites have a large impact in aiding students to learn. They provide ways for students to study, in addition to any worksheets they may receive. Worksheets may be great for practice; however, homework sites provide practice and even more resources. Outside the classroom, students can continue to learn and absorb interesting facts, methods, or terms to help them improve their grades.