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Click, watch, learn: The impact of student self-study materials on physics electricity and magnetism course outcomes

James K. Hirons1, Jonathan D. Perry2, Kaylyn Sitka1, Dawson T. Nodurft1, Scott Crawford3, William Bassichis1, and Tatiana L. Erukhimova1,*

  • *Contact author: etanya@tamu.edu
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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 22, 020103 – Published 13 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/p4jl-cjjd

Abstract

Performance in introductory courses, particularly physics, is often crucial for student success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and can impact an individual’s tendency to persist in their chosen field. To enhance students’ individual learning experiences, faculty at many universities have worked to develop open-access, self-study materials to help build conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. Faculty at Texas A&M University have contributed to these efforts, creating more than 200 online video resources and a broad bank of prior exams available to students. This work explores and measures the impact that these resources can have on student course outcomes in an introductory, calculus-based electricity and magnetism course. Data were collected from three fall semesters, 2021–2023, including classroom performance, a conceptual assessment, and relevant university-level data to contextualize student background and preclass abilities. We present results from regression analyses examining the relative importance of multiple resources offered concurrently to students. We also discuss how the use of supplemental material affects course performance, alongside other potential predictors such as demographics and prior preparation. Similar to prior studies, we found that relevant prior preparation in mathematics was the strongest predictor of student performance, with prior physics knowledge being a weaker but still statistically significant predictor. Students’ utilization of supplemental prior exams was the second-highest predictor of student performance. First-generation students were observed to have a slightly lower average performance on exams. However, interaction terms in the regression models suggested that first-generation students using supplemental prior exams were able to close this gap. Through anonymous surveys, students reported favorable impressions of the materials, with over 80% of students sharing that they had a noticeable contribution to their learning outside of the classroom and 98% stating they would recommend them to their peers.

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 22, 020103– Published 13 July, 2026
  • Received 15 August 2025
  • Accepted 12 June 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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