Effects of Online Math Applets on Students’ Mathematical Thinking
Abstract: This study examined the effects of using online math applets (OMAs) on students’ performance on the problems requiring various levels of mathematical thinking. Through using Webb’s (2002) Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework, the problems are assigned into three levels of mathematical thinking: “recall,” “skill/concept” and “strategic thinking.” Participants were forty-eight college students taking a remedial mathematics course, randomly assigned into two groups, and used the same set of OMAs with open-ended exploratory versus structured mathematics questions. The pre-and posttest assessing students’ performance on the three types of items mentioned above were administered and students’ interactions with the OMAs were analyzed. The findings revealed that OMAs enabled students working with open-ended exploratory activities to improve their solutions to the “strategic thinking” type of items.