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The utility of Just-In-Time-Teaching (JITT) is compared across course topics and groups of students not receiving JITT exercises in class. JITT feedback incorporated various active learning exercises based on students' performance on online homework problems from Sapling Learning. With over 200 students in two sections participating in the sophomore level introductory thermodynamics course, student performance was evaluated on in-class quiz and exam problems. Student performance covering a specific course topic subsequently reinforced by a JITT exercise was found to be measurably higher (>9%) than a control group who did not receive the JITT review. Overall, comparing student achievement across five topics covered by JITT compared with five different course topics not covered by JITT did show small positive outcomes. The improvements after using JITT exercises included a higher median and 3rd quartile scores, so JITT may be beneficial to mid-performing students. Overall, student feedback on the JITT reviews showed that over 85% of the students thought the JITT exercises were helpful for engagement and a good use of class time.

YouTube Fridays devotes a small fraction of class time to student-selected videos related to the course topic, e.g., thermodynamics. The students then write and solve a homework-like problem based on the events in the video. Three recent pilots involving over 300 students have developed a database of videos and questions that reinforce important class concepts like energy balances and phase behavior. A set of example problems and videos are presented from a sophomore level engineering thermodynamics course and a sophomore level material and energy balances course. Student evaluations found a vast majority (79%) of the students felt better at relating real world phenomena to thermodynamics from participating in YouTube Fridays. Overall, YouTube Fridays is a student led activity that provides practice of problem solving on open-ended, course related questions.

The article scrutinizes how personalized online-based homework can be used to heighten the work of Chemical Engineering (ChE) students undergoing a course in Material and Energy Balances. It explains how the scheme was used in undergraduate ChE classes in the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Colorado School of Mines. It discusses how online homework systems were employed in lieu of ordinary testing plans. It also describes how students fared better under the new system.