More About the Minds On Physics Internet Modules

We like making stuff at The Physics Classroom. We particularly like making tools that facilitate substantial learning and great lesson-planning. And sometimes we have to re-make stuff because the devices used to view our stuff - phones, tablets, and computers - are constantly undergoing change. And when we come across a good idea, the re-making of the stuff is worth the time and effort to do it. And that is why we have been busy re-making the Minds On Physics Internet Modules (affectionately known as MOPs). Born in 1999 as a Shockwave-based program, MOPs has spent 6 years(from 2016-2021) as a stand-alone app. And now we have brought it back into the browser as an HTML5 tool beginning in the Fall of 2021.

Minds On Physics is a collection of interactive questioning modules designed to promote conceptual understanding of basic physics concepts. MOPs is composed of 151 sense-making activities (known as missions) that target discrete concepts. An intelligent-question delivery system delivers questions in a random order and re-presents similar questions to a learner when difficulties are detected. Answers are evaluated in a secure manner and immediate feedback is provided. Student progress is displayed on-screen in the form of a Progress Bar and a Health Bar. Each question is accompanied by a Help page that provides question-specific information in an understandable manner.


 

The FREE Version of MOPs

We are offering both a free and a paid option for use of our Minds On Physics program. Users of the FREE option will be able to use Minds On Physics as a learning tool in the traditional manner that it has been used in the past. Both the Sudden Death mode (once referred to as the For Credit mode) and the Marathon mode (once called the For Practice mode) will be accessible. Student progress will be displayed on-screen, answers will be evaluated and feedback given, and a trophy will be awarded and displayed upon completion of a mission. The FREE version is perfect for classroom use and individual student practice. But the FREE version does not save student progress on a mission or save completion records when students finish a mission. The FREE version works without teacher and student accounts.

 

The PAID Version of MOPs

The PAID version of the program requires that a teacher purchase an annual subscription with enought seats to enable Minds On Physics for their classes. The PAID version offers the following premium features:

• Seamless integration of Minds On Physics with our Task Tracker system.
• The ability to create classes in Task Tracker and add students to the classes.
• The ability to turn MOP missions into assigned tasks with due dates, and point values, and partial credit rules; and to have such assignments display on students' assigned Tasks page. 
• Teachers with paid accounts can preview all the questions within a MOP mission and view the organization of those questions into Question Groups.
• Teachers can identify Question Groups which they don't wish to be presented to students and eliminate those question groups from their students' experience.
• Teachers can set the "miss penalty" for an assigned MOP mission. (When students miss a question, their Health Bar decreases by a certain percentage - known as the miss penalty. When the Health Bar decreases from 100% down to 0% due to repeated misses, the student must start over. The miss penalty isl a teacher setting for teachers with Task Tracker accounts.)
• Student progress on a mission done in Sudden Death mode is saved after each answered question. If students quit the mission, they can return and begin where they left off.
• Task Tracker will track student progress and teachers can view the progress and scores of students on a scoring page. (Sudden Death mode only)

 

Pricing

Questions regarding the cost of Minds On Physics subscriptions can be found on our Pricing for Schools page.



 

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