Problem solving skills

This paper describes a three-year experiment to determine whether student performance can be improved by making their performance visible in quantitative ways and assisting them to reflect on deviations between desired and actual performance. The experiment focused on improving effort estimation for planning, improving effort allocation over the period of performance, and reducing the recurrence of previously reported defects in subsequent assignments. To accomplish this, a Web-based tool was implemented and used to capture numerous student performance parameters as well as planning rationales, postmortem reflections, and feedback to the students.