For students to effectively study and improve their performance in general chemistry it helps if they are aware of the chemical topics which they understand the least. At the University of Utah, we have developed a system using Item Response Theory to assess ability by topic and provide individualized feedback directly to students. With this information students can focus on the material that potentially yields the greatest improvement in their test scores. Initial results from this system indicate that student scores improve relative to previous years and to a control group that did not receive the feedback. Our talk will describe the identification system as well show some results from using the system.

Item response theory as a tool to identify and improve difficult topics for individual students

251st National Meeting (2016)

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