One of the ways in which the Physics Learning Studio has been evaluated involved a blind test. Questions covering some fundamental principles of mechanics were designed by an internal committee and were included as part of the Final Exam. Student performance on this portion of the Final is summarized in the graph. Here the Physics Learning Studio is compared to two sections taught by traditional methods.
We have also used the Force Concept Inventory as a pre- and post-test. From these results we determine an improvement factor, defined as
g = (post - pre) / (100 - pre)
Our results show g = 0.59. This is significantly above our experience in the past, and well above the average ( g = 0.48 ) registered by other methods of interactive-engagement teaching. See the excellent study by Prof. Richard Hake (Indiana University) for more information about the FCI.