Learning and Problem-solving Transfer between Physics Problems using Web- based Homework Tutor

We demonstrate learning and problem-solving transfer between related physics problems using the Socratic web-based tutor, MasteringPhysics. Two equally skilled groups of students taking introductory mechanics solve related physics problem pairs in reverse order with respect to each other. We show that for problems containing help ("skill builders" and "self tutoring problems") in the form of requestable hints, descriptive text, and feedback, twice as many students were able to complete problems correctly in real time compared to problems that did not provide any help (end-of-chapter problems). The group that did a problem second (prepared group) in a given related pair was able to solve it in ~15% less time on average compared to the group that did the same problem first (unprepared group). Furthermore, the prepared group requests 7% fewer hints on average than the unprepared group. We conclude that learning and problem-solving transfer is facilitated through skill builders and self tutoring problems, which also are pedagogically superior to end-of-chapter problems.