STUDENT SUCCESS INITIATIVES IMPLEMENTED BY THE MATH TEAM FALL 2004

THE OPPORTUNITY Attrition rate 42.6% –The Math Team created May 2004 –Pilot project to reduce attrition approved

NumberPercent Pass % Fail % Drop/Withdraw % Total % FIRST SEMESTER MATH RESULTS FALL %

STUDENT SUCCESS STRATEGIES Brainstormed student success strategies Focus of strategies was to make an early connection between the student and the professor and to encourage students to take responsibility for their learning

DATA COLLECTION Initiatives –Test 1 Reflections –Phone/ contact –Drop-in Tutorials (Technology) –Business Mathematics Help in MLC –On-line quizzes (LYRYX Project) –Pre and Post Attitudinal Survey –Put “strongest” professors into first year classes, where possible

DATA COLLECTION Measurements –Mohawk Mathematics Assessment Test (MMAT) Score –Demographics –Course and Class size –Attendance –Professor –Time and Location of Tests

FACTORS THAT DID NOT IMPACT STUDENT SUCCESS Statistically Insignificant Results –Professor –Time of Test –Location of Test

FACTORS THAT DID NOT IMPACT STUDENT SUCCESS Contact of students who did not write Term Test 1 –Phone contact – contact No student offered the opportunity to write the missed test did so. These students were gone!

FACTORS THAT DID NOT IMPACT STUDENT SUCCESS “Drop-In” Tutorials (Technology) –Scheduled –Poor attendance –Too costly

FACTORS THAT DID IMPACT STUDENT SUCCESS MLC Business Math Help –Scheduled – 11 hours –Musical Chairs –Too costly Recommendation Require co-op students in MLC who can help with business mathematics (and statistics not only technology math).

FACTORS THAT DID IMPACT STUDENT SUCCESS “Test 1 Reflections” Objectives: –to have students acknowledge their grade – i.e. how are they doing at week 5 –to have students accept responsibility for their grade –to restate all the possible sources of help available while there was still an opportunity to improve

Test 1 Reflections As part of the Math Dept’s initiative to improve student retention, I am asking you to complete the following questionnaire no later than one day after receiving your test mark. Instructions: Simply reply to this (to me!)l and fill in the blanks (then hit “SEND” of course!). A completed response will result in one (1) mark added to your test mark. My course: _____________________ My mark on Test: _________ out of __________ Three parts to the “Test 1 Reflections” Part 1: Course and grade acknowledgement

Are you happy with this mark? Yes ______ No _______ If No, WHY do you think your mark was lower than expected? (You can choose more than one option): The test was marked too hard _______ The material was not what I expected _________ I studied the wrong material _________ I did not study enough ____________ I missed too many classes ____________ I did not do the homework on a regular basis __________ I did not seek help from the MLC/instructor when needed: ____________ Other reasons: ____________________ (specify) Part 2: Responsibility for Grade

If you were NOT happy with your mark WHAT do you plan to do about it: (again, you can pick more than one) Attend classes on a regular basis:____________ Do ALL of the homework as an absolute minimum: ____________ Ask for help from the MLC/ professor when needed: ________________ Get a tutor through the counselling office: ______________ Other: _____________________ (specify) Use this area for any other comments you wish to make: Part 3: Help Available

“Test 1 Reflections” Participation ranged from % Positive feedback from many students –Anecdotal –Took ownership – hard on themselves –Many students thanked the professors –Were grateful for the contact –Some had fun!

'K' - is for Karen, thy teacher her name 'A' - is for Academic, her method, her game 'R' - is for Reasonable, the marks that she gives 'E' - is for Envy, for the good life she lives 'N' - is for Name, as I've stated above... for Karen teaches math with a whole lot of love. “Test 1 Reflections”

Lyryx Project Online learning program tied to the text Pilot funded by McGraw-Hill Weekly quizzes starting WEEK 1 Quizzes were created by Craig Cooke, a Mohawk Math Professor

Lyryx Project Quizzes were worth 15% of final grade Early graded feedback Professor knew by end of Week 2 which students had started to fall behind These students were contacted in class or by

Lyryx Project Same instructor ran two classes one with Lyryx and one under regular program Trial was successful During Winter semester, remedial on Lyryx is being tested with all Business classes.

RESEARCH QUESTION Does attendance affect performance?

Correlation between final grade and attendance was statistically significant. (r=0.467, p=0.000) Attendance

n=102 n=156 n=803 n=236

Passed Low Attendance Independent Learners Passed High Attendance Passers Failed Low Attendance Failures Failed High Attendance Heart Breakers Attendance

RESEARCH QUESTION Attendance matters (r=0.467, p=0.000) Why do some students who attend still fail?

RESEARCH QUESTION Are basic math skills on entry to the college a factor in determining student success?

Basic Math Skills…by quadrant

One-way ANOVA: ASSESSMENT versus Quadrant Source DF SS MS F P Quadrant Error Total

Attendance: Action Plan by Quadrant Independent Learners currently successful attendance policies should not penalize these students. Passers current system works Failure do not, in general, have the basic math skills required to be successful – counseling as Heart Breakers attendance is not the root issue Heart Breakers counseling to consider pre- technology or G.A.S. to improve math skills.

RESEARCH QUESTION How do we identify the lower quadrants early enough to impact student success?

ONE POSSIBLE IDENTIFIER Term Test 1 results

PROBLEMS Attendance patterns and term test 1 scores are not available until Week 5 Is this too late? If it is not too late, what do we do with these students?

Attendance: What can you do? Attendance matters (significant correlation); but care must be taken not to penalize students who are capable of independent learning Contact after term test 1 with the purpose to reinforce the student’s responsibility in the learning process and to restate all available sources of help within the college works.

RESEARCH QUESTION How do the students feel about math…is there math anxiety?

Attitudinal Survey An exploratory survey for our department. Survey of Attitudes Toward Mathematics – this is a validated survey based on Survey of Attitude Towards Statistics (Schau, 2003) Measures (components): affect, cognitive, value and difficulty. Each component had several questions asked in both the positive and the negative to give a reliable score.

Attitude Components Affect - positive and negative feelings concerning math Cognitive Competence - attitudes about intellectual knowledge and skills when applied to math Value - attitudes about the usefulness, relevance, and worth of math in personal and professional life Difficulty - attitudes about the difficulty of math as a subject

Attitude Scoring Scored on a 6 point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. For “Difficulty” the scores were reversed for analysis so that on graphs anything positive about math shows as a high value and anything negative as a low value

Comparing Business and Technology Students

Attitude Scores for Business and Technology Combined

Attitude Survey Results Affect: 75% have positive feelings about math Cognitive: 90% have positive attitudes about their ability to do math Value: 95% believe that math is useful in both their personal and professional life Difficulty: 70% of the students find math difficult as a subject

Attitude Survey Exploratory data collection What needs to be addressed?

Attitude Survey Math anxiety exists. In spite of positive attitudes in “affect”, “cognitive” and “value”, students still believe math is difficult. Next initiative will be to design an experiment to find a solution to this problem.

Comparing Pre and Post Scores

FALL 2003*FALL 2004** NumberPercentNumberPercent Enrolled % % Disappeared prior to test %1538.2% Failed % % Attrition (failed math) % % Retention (passed math) % % THE SUCCESS

103 STUDENTS SAVED

FALL 2005 – SPRING 2007 Where do we go from here?

LYRYX expanded to remedial (Winter Initiative – no data yet) Objective: to increase participation by having –remedial available from any location including home –faster turnaround of results –more relevance by tying remedial directly to text used in course (all remedial questions are business related) –same remedial format as the quiz procedures in the course

RESEARCH QUESTION Does class size affect student success?

Class Size Design: Two double-section and ten single-section classes in Fall 2005; continue experiment over several semesters. Business Math, MA101 (14 sections) Factors to be recorded: class size, professor, course, and program

Class Size Fall 2004: Due to registration problems class sizes were not adequately distinct. Experiment will now run over 4 semesters rather than 6.

RESEARCH PROBLEM A potential underlying effect on student success is the expectation that students attend regular classes while writing a concentrated number of tests (in some cases until 9:30 pm!!!) FORWARD TO CORPORATE STUDENT SUCCESS COMMITTEE AND PROGRAM DEPARTMENTS

THANKS TO