The University of Idaho Mathematics Redesign

Which Courses Did We Redesign? Intermediate Algebra ~1000 students annually College Algebra ~1400 students annually Approximately 1400 total students during the fall and 1000 students during the spring.

Why Redesign? Institutional Reasons Increase student performance and retention. Address student attitudinal issues. Save classroom space. Lower costs.

Why Redesign? Student-Centered Reasons Poor success rates. Math 108 (Intermediate Algebra) is considered a “bottleneck” course. Traditional lecture format made for an inappropriate learning environment. Over time, incoming Freshman were coming to UI less and less well prepared.

The Polya Mathematics Center Brink/Phinney Hall 90-seat computer lab

How Do Students Learn In The Polya Mathematics Learning Center?

Each Student Attends A Mandatory Class One Hour Per Week Called The Focus Group

Each student must spend 3 hours/wk in the Polya Center

Students can attend Live Lectures in the Polya Center. There are 9 Live Lectures each week. Lectures get repeated throughout the week.

Polya Mathematics Center Live Lecture

Students Choose Their Homework Option Option 1: Hand in problems from the text book. Option 2: Hand in MyMathLab problems on-line. Most students choose the MyMathLab option. This semester, 95% of students chose the MyMathLab option.

Students Watch Polya On-Line Lectures

Signal For Help

Work Through a MyMathLab Problem

Fall 2004 MyMathLab Results Of the students who finished the course, (took the final exam), 93% were “MyMathLab Students” 78% of the MML students passed the course while 62% of the “book students” passed the course. The MML students scored, on average, 13.5 points higher on the final exam.

A Quick Tour Of The Polya Center TOUR MOVIE

How Do The Students Know What To Do Each Week? We created weekly task lists! The task list is a step-by-step weekly list of tasks to accomplish each week. Sample TASK LIST

We Want Test Taking To Be a Learning Experience “Taking the tests in the Polya Center is great! Not only do I get a better grade, but the teaching is reinforced.” Former Math 108 Student

Multiple Choice Tests Are Taken In The Polya Center

Test Grade=.80*(Best MC) + Written Polya Testing Each test has 2 parts Multiple choice (80%) Taken on the computer Provides instant feedback Allows for 3 chances Must be taken in Polya There are deadlines! Written Response (20%) Taken during focus group on a specific date Test Grade=.80*(Best MC) + Written

Students Receive Immediate Feedback

Review the test objectives Section 4.2: Find the slope of a line, given two points on the line.  \ Book Examples Sidebar Problems Book Problems On-Line Lectures Page 178, Example 1 Page 178, Problem 2 Page 185, Problems 13-18 OLL 4.2.3   Section 4.3: Write the equation of a line, given two points on the line.  Book Examples Sidebar Problems Book Problems On-Line Lectures Page 192, Example 2 Page 193, Problem 3 Page 198, Problems 27-36 OLL 4.3.6   Section 4.5: Use f(x) notation (evaluate a function).  Book Examples Sidebar Problems Book Problems On-Line Lectures Page 217 Example 5 Page 218, Example 8 Page 218, Problem 6 Page 219, Problem 7 Page 223, Problems 35-46 OLL 4.5.9  

Meet with a coach in the Coaches Corner

How Do We Survive With Over 1,400 Students Each With a 150 min/wk Time Commitment And Only 185 Chairs? ROLLING DEADLINES!! (The one drawback is we lose a week’s worth of material)

Students : September 5-8

How do we survive with over 1,400 students each with a 150 min/wk time commitment and only 185 chairs? ROLLING DEADLINES!! (The one drawback is we lose a week’s worth of material) Facility is wireless. New laptop cart (added 15 new computers) Database automatically reduces time commitment for successful students. “Virtual Polya” allows students to work from home and get credit for time spent.

Students: September 19-22

Outcomes Teachers are able to teach more courses. Although hours in the classroom has decreased for teachers, the number of student contact hours has increased! 40-50 students finish the course early each semester. Classroom space has decreased by 2/3. Cost per student has decreased.

Outcomes

Outcomes STUDENTS WHO “TRY” A student who tries is a student who: Attends their Focus Group each week Fulfills their lab time requirement each week Turns in all of their homework Takes each test 3 times Over 95% of these students pass the course!

Other ideas made possible by our redesign Outreach to rural area schools, dual enrollment. The re-collection of students (C.A.M.P)

C.A.M.P STUDENTS

C.A.M.P STUDENTS

Thank you for allowing me to talk to you! Any Questions? kirkt@uidaho.edu www.sci.uidaho.edu/polya