Learning Task Inventories (LTIs) - Exploration of Optimal Conditions to Help Students Develop, Improve and Sustain Good Study and Learning Practices

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

Scaffolding via weekly Learning Task Inventories (LTIs) was introduced for an introductory organic chemistry course to support students’ learning task monitoring and self-assessment. LTIs consisted of chapter-by-chapter lists of detailed learning tasks expected to be mastered. The study examines efforts to implement LTIs effectively, compares outcomes under differing implementation approaches, and evaluates effects on final exam grades and students’ reactions to using the LTIs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Learning Task Inventories (LTIs)

Implementation Attempts

Methods

Participants

Materials

Learning Task Inventories (LTIs). Exploration of Optimal Conditions to Help Students Develop, Improve and Sustain Good Study and Learning Practices Stephen MacNeil, Eileen Wood, Lucia Zivcakova, Robyn Glover & Patrick Smith, Wilfrid Laurier University Abstract To support students in an introductory organic chemistry course, scaffolding in the form of weekly Learning Task Inventories (LTIs) were introduced. LTIs are chapter-by-chapter lists of detailed learning tasks students are expected to master during the course. This paper describes efforts to effectively implement LTIs, the effect of differing implementations of LTIs on students’final exam grades and students’reactions to the use of LTIs. Introduction Students’ ability to accurately monitor and assess their learning is associated with academic success (Schraw, 1998; Ku & Ho, 2010) . However, many students, even at the university level, lack the metacognitive skills and strategies that would allow them to maximize their learning (Wood, Motz & Willoughby, 1998) . In order to facilitate student learning, instructors can augment their instruction by providing both course specific content and instructional supports that scaffold students so that they can acquire the monitoring and assessment skills they need to succeed. These supports are especially important for ‘feared’ courses such as organic chemistry (Seymour & Hewitt, 1997) where student anxiety can further limit students’use of appropriate learning strategies. To assist students in an introductory organic chemistry course in developing critical monitoring and self-assessment skills, we offered scaffolding support through weekly Learning Task Inventories (LTIs) . LTIs are chapter-by-chapter lists of detailed learning tasks that students are expected to master during the course. The implementation of the LTIs to the introductory Organic Chemistry I course at Wilfrid Laurier University has evolved over the past three years and culminated in the full experimental analysis presented in this paper. The nine LTIs for the 12 week course were first developed and used in 2010. Portable document formats (pdf) of the LTIs were released through the course management system at the beginning of each of nine weeks and remained available for students for the remainder of the term. We believed that these LTIs would be an excellent resource for students that could be used as check lists for weekly course review and for preparation for the midterm test and final exam, and we assumed they would be accessed early and often by most students. To our surprise, the LTIs were vastly underutilized. Figure 1 displays the percentage of students who accessed each of the LTIs throughout the term. Given that these percentages represent cumulative end-of-term data, it appears that a majority of students quickly determined that the LTIs were not worth their time. On average across the term, only 40% of students accessed the LTIs and among those who accessed the LTIs, there is no certainty that they utilized them as they were intended. Figure 1 Percentage of students accessing LTIs by chapter (fall, 2010) In an attempt to increase student use of LTIs in 2011, the LTIs were released as surveys through the course management system. For each learning task, students were asked to rate their ability to perform the task on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = cannot do this task; 5 = can do this task very well) . The LTIs were made available to students at the end of each of nine weeks, and a selective release feature of the course management system was used to effectively force students to complete each LTI in order to gain access to on-line materials for the following week. In hindsight, this was a bad idea and we have proof! Throughout the term, one of us (SM) scanned LTI results on a regular basis and noticed that, despite significant variations in level of difficulty among learning tasks, there was less and less variation in student responses as the

FAQs

What are Learning Task Inventories (LTIs) in the study?

LTIs are chapter-by-chapter lists of detailed learning tasks students are expected to master during the course. They were provided weekly to support monitoring and self-assessment.

How were LTIs implemented during the course?

The LTIs were initially released as weekly PDF resources through the course management system. Later, they were released as surveys with Likert-scale ratings and used a selective release feature to require completion for access to subsequent online materials.

What was the impact of the different LTI implementations?

The paper investigates how implementation differences affected students’ final exam grades and their reactions. It also reports evidence that LTIs were underutilized and that students’ responses showed little variation, prompting a need to study optimal implementation conditions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa