Tammy Muhs Assistant Chair, MALL Director University of Central Florida NCAT Redesign Scholar Course Redesign: A Way To Increase Student Success

 2 nd largest university in U.S.  12 Colleges offering Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral Programs  58,587 students (49,900 Undergraduate)  81% of Undergraduates receive financial aid ◦ 2 nd largest amount of FL Bright Futures students  Students from 50 states and 145 countries  Main campus 1,415 acres, 180 buildings  1,948 Faculty and 8,619 Staff

 Annual enrollments – students ◦ Issues with course drift due to the many different instructors  Large lectures students per class (3 hours lecture, 1 hour recitation)  Independent sections-49 students per class (3 hours lecture)  Mixed mode sections -21 students per class (1 hour lecture with online component) ◦ Withdrawal rate more than double traditional, lower success rate, lower cost, less space

Success Rates: Pass rates were down, withdrawal rates were up Space: Too many students, not enough classrooms Budget: We needed to do more, with less

 UCF Goal – “Fix” College Algebra  NCAT Goal - Increase learning outcomes and success rates while decreasing cost  Received the NCAT Grant in Spring 2008 ◦ Grant provided training and feedback

 Emporium (Lab) Model***  Replacement (Hybrid) Model***  Fully Online Model  Supplemental Model  Buffet Model *** Typically produces the best results in terms of student learning and cost for Mathematics courses

Change the mix and number of faculty teaching the course Combine smaller sections into one larger section

 Capacity - serve more students in same space  Reduction in repeated course attempts  Coordinate all sections of the same course ◦ Benefits  Remove redundancy resulting in improved productivity  Prevent course drift resulting in consistency in course content ◦ Drawbacks  Faculty buy in  Weak Coordinator may result in many sections with issues as opposed to a single or couple of sections

 Course improvement or redesign  Offering additional courses  Serving more students  Distance learning sections  Reduction in teaching load  Training  Balance the budget

 Students meet one hour a week in a large auditorium  Students spend three hours per week in a designated computer facility working on their College Algebra coursework. ◦ Watch videos ◦ Complete homework ◦ Complete quizzes ◦ Work on their individualized Study Plan

 Renovated Space for the Mathematics Assistance and Learning Lab (MALL)  Provides funding for six faculty members committed to improving learning in General Education Program Mathematics  Provides funding for peer tutors and MALL expenses

From Renovation to Completion Phase I - 95 computers (Spring 2010) Phase II computers (Summer 2010) Phase III computers (Spring 2011)

Historical Success Rate:

Course Grade Distribution Summer 2009 Traditional Section n=226 students Summer 2009 Redesigned Sections n=162 students Fall 2009 Traditional Sections n=851 students Fall 2009 Redesigned Sections n=1174 students A11.9%20.4% 28.7%27.7% B26.1%36.4% 26.8%33.7% A & B38.0%56.8% 55.5%61.4%

 Students spend one hour in class ◦ Review concepts from the previous week ◦ Highlight upcoming material ◦ Receive administrative information ◦ Classroom Response System (iClicker) is used to keep students engaged ◦ When a holiday prevents the class from meeting, we use media exercises for the class activity grade

 Students register in sections of 19 students  Creates a learning community In-class community Virtual community  Between 15 and 18 of these 19 student sections meet together, at the same time, in a large lecture hall one hour each week

Students spend a required three hours in the Mathematics Assistance and Learning Lab (MALL) Weekly online hw and quiz assignments Students get unlimited attempts on hw due night before class Students get 7 attempts on associated quiz due day of class MALL staff provide on-demand assistance Students are in a proctored environment

 Test Scheduling System (Testing Cal) ◦ Scheduling open for a week and students have multiple time options available  Testing is completed in a proctored environment using a password system ◦ Immediate feedback ◦ Free response questions or multiple choice ◦ Challenge week ◦ ADA time accommodation adjustments ◦ Integrity violations almost non-existent ◦ Cost savings

 Faculty  Students  Complete all assignments, become test proctors during testing weeks, and complete training about 14 hours a semester  College Reading & Learning Association International Tutor Program Certification  Peer tutors ($8.50-$9.00 per hour)  Undergraduate and graduate mathematics students ($8.50-$10.00 per hour)  Graduate Teaching Assistants

 Top GTAs are called Mentors ◦ Meet with teaching team weekly ◦ Communicate with students ◦ Hold seminars and test reviews ◦ Help with classroom management  Progress Monitoring ◦ Students Progress is monitored weekly ◦ Students receive weekly feedback via Communication has been shown to have an important role in learning and understanding mathematics (Knuth & Peressini, 2001)

 Recent studies have found that successful completion of a math gatekeeper course is a milestone positively correlated with academically successful outcomes (still enrolled in institution, transferred to another institution, graduated)  In a study completed by FDOE, only 57% of the students in the community college system with a W in Fall 2004 re-enrolled in College Algebra within the next two years

FTIC STUDENT COLLEGE READINESS JUNE 2011, EDITION

 How much do you believe the Help me solve this feature helped you learn College Algebra? (Fall 2011; n=1266) ◦ 92.1% of students replied with either very much or somewhat  How much do you believe the in-class questions helped you learn College Algebra? (Fall 2011; n=1291) ◦ 50.1% of students replied with either very much or somewhat  During visits to the MALL, do you ask the tutors questions every week? (Fall 2011; n=1313) ◦ 39.8% of the students always ask questions

 Anonymous student surveys in fall 2009, fall 2010, and fall 2011  % of the students felt the redesigned course offered at least as much instructional interaction as their other courses  35.8%-60.97% indicated that there was considerably more interaction when compared to their other courses

 Producing favorable results Active learning has been shown to be an effective method of improving learning outcomes (Prince, 2004, Twigg, 2003)  Increased course offerings Intermediate Algebra fall 2010 Precalculus spring 2011 Trigonometry fall 2011

Please feel free to contact me at