Author(s):
Beth Thacker, Jianlan Wang, Yuanlin Zhang
Texas Tech University
Need: The revolutionary new field of Quantum Computing (QC) continues to gain attention in industry, academia and government in both research and education. At educational institutions, there is a proliferation of introductory courses at various academic levels signaling a growing interest and recognition of the significance of this field. A crucial aspect often overlooked is the development of research-based materials and pedagogical approaches to effectively teach the complexities of quantum computing to diverse cohorts of learners across multiple disciplines. There is a great need for empirical investigations of the effectiveness of learning materials and pedagogical approaches in this new interdisciplinary field.
In this poster, we present an empirical investigation done at an R1 Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) using the multiple case study method. We compare a case study on students in an introductory QC course without research-based mini-tutorials to a study of students taking the QC course with research-based mini-tutorials. The mini-tutorials are patterned after physics tutorials developed by various physics education research groups, such as the University of Washington [1]. However, they are shorter, designed to be done in 20-30 minutes, and focus on an important concept, skill or topic covered in class. The research methodology involves conducting interviews with students, analyzing the interview transcripts to identify students’ strengths and difficulties, especially on specific topics covered by the mini-tutorials, and comparing the two cases of students taught with and without the mini-tutorials.
Guiding Questions (research questions):
1. How effective are research-based mini-tutorials in an introductory quantum computing class?
2. How do the strengths and difficulties of students in an introductory quantum computing class taught with and without research-based mini-tutorials compare?
In previous work [2], we identified students’ strengths and difficulties in an introductory QC class, as evidenced by their understanding of important concepts and their skill at applying those concepts. In that qualitative study, we used semi-structured interviews with student volunteers and analyzed the interviews using the thematic analysis method. We used the results of the study as the basis for the development of a set of mini-tutorials focused on addressing students’ difficulties in learning QC concepts and skills.
Outcomes: In this study, we report on a comparison of the previous case study with a case study performed using the same semi-structured interview questions with student volunteers from a QC course in which the research-based mini-tutorials were employed. In this comparative case study [3], the interviews were analyzed using the thematic analysis method to study the students’ strengths and difficulties for comparison to the previous study. In addition, we present the results of a rubric developed to analyze each set of interviews with a particular focus on the objectives of the mini-tutorials, employed on both sets of data. This is an indication of the effectiveness of the mini-tutorials.
Broader Impacts: Although we present case studies, our investigations will serve as the basis for further curriculum development and further development of learning and assessment resources at our institution and other institutions.
1. McDermott, L.C., Shaffer, P.S., Tutorials in Introductory Physics (Pearson, Boston, MA, 2013).
2. T. Kushimo and B. Thacker, “Investigating Students’ Strengths and Difficulties in Quantum Computing,” 2023 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE), Bellevue, WA, USA, 2023, pp. 33-39, doi: 10.1109/QCE57702.2023.20322 (2023).
3. Bartlett, L., & Vavrus, F. (2017). Comparative case studies: An innovative approach. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 1(1).
Coauthors
Jianlan Wang, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; Yuanlin Zhang, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
