1. http://ruready.net CREATING A NEW BREED OF MATH LEARNERGIZERS WITH FREE ONLINE COLLEGE READINESS TOOLS Nava Livne, Oren Livne, Chuck Wight Continuing Education, University of Utah E-Mail Us: nlivne@aoce.utah.edu EDUCAUSE Western Regional, San Francisco, CA, May 9, 2007

2. 2 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Outline 1.Motivation & Goals 2.Tools 3.Learning Features 4.Site Demo 5.Preliminary Results 6.Creating Math Learnergizers: + = ? Is It Feasible

3. 3 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Motivation & Goals Motivation Lack of readiness for intro college math courses Persistent math gap of underserved students Goals Address individual math weaknesses Creative math thinking measurement Automatic scoring and partial-credit Individual self-paced math learning academic gap

4. 4 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Register Final Patent Application DOCKET NO. 00846 25702.PROV, January 07 Login Expectations Test Assessment Test RUReady Site Flow & Demo Select Course Practice Level 1 Practice Level 2 Practice Level 3 Practice Level 4 Dynamic Error Feedback NO Adapt practice to weak topics YES Feedback Questionnaire Certificate Ready? Site Demo

5. 5 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Site Tools 2 Self assessment tests Diagnose current readiness level Student–University expectation match (16 statements) Math content knowledge (16 questions; OE, MC) 4 Self-paced practice levels Levels are hierarchical: gradual learning Each level includes sessions: unlimited # Each session includes 8 OE questions Each question includes 4 progressive hints

6. 6 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Site Learning Features 1.Adaptive gradual learning Trains more on weak topics detected by assessment tool Adapts batches of 8 questions, not individual questions 2.Creativity measurement Half of the questions are academic Half of the questions are creative: they have more than one correct response!

7. 7 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Measuring Mathematical Creativity Question: Find the coordinates of the center of a circle having radius r = 1 that also contains the points (1,0) and (0,1). (0,1) (1,0) Standard response: (0,0) "Out of the box”, creative response: (1,1)

8. 8 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference 3.Interactive error feedback Visual feedback: student’s response is color-coded Both correct and erroneous elements are highlighted Different error types are highlighted in different colors The analysis is based on comparing the response’s structure with the correct answer’s structure Site Learning Features (Cont.)

9. 9 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Dynamic Error Feedback The learner is presented with an open-ended question: “Expand the expression (x-y) ” 2 x^2 - 2 x y + y^2 Instructor Reference string Stored in database Learner Response string Typed on keyboard (x^2 - y^2) + x ^2 y^ 2 -2* * x y y^2- x^2 ( ) 6 Missing Elements Wrong Correct Redundant

10. 10 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference 4.Automatic Partial- Credit Scoring Parser scoring model: uses element highlights –Fraction of correct elements –Overall response correctness (right or wrong) Site Learning Features (Cont.) Which is more important? (How to choose a?) y^2- x^2 ( ) y^2 x^2 Score = a*(correct elements fraction) + (1-a)*(correctness)

11. 11 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Scoring Model Validation PARSER SCORE TEACHER SCORE Human teacher scoring - parser scoring: correlation = 0.91 ! regression line human 100=parser 97 Parser Demo

12. 12 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Example of a Certificate

13. 13 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Preliminary Results Students’ Gradual Progress: Practice sessions improve student skills SchoolPre–Assess. Level 1 First Practice Level 1 Last Practice Level 1 AMES (N=29) Males27.744.154.9 Females32.046.581.3 Olympus (N=79) Males29.347.060.7 Females28.348.960.8 Content knowledge - mean scores [%]

14. 14 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Detecting Individual Learner Types Learners exhibit different learning curves in practice sessions Academic Male Academic Female A C R = 0.45 2 β = 0.67 β = 0.35 A C R = 0.97 2 β = 0.84 β = 0.37 Creative Male Creative Female A C R = 0.51 2 β = 0.18 β = 0.57 A C R = 0.81 2 β = 0.44 β = 0.96

15. 15 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference 1.The RUReady online tools address talent loss & bridge the academic gap in math 2.New learning strategy: Low-stakes individual learning Learning through immediate error feedback Creative thinking “out-of-the-box” 3.Level the playing field for every student (free site) 4.Partnerships with K-12 and higher ed institutions Creating Math Learnergizers – IS IT FEASIBLE? In short, the answer is ‘YES’ + =

16. 16 / 16 May 9, 2007EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference Create a free account:http://ruready.net Math parser demo: http://ruready.net/demo E-Mail us: nlivne@aoce.utah.edu * These links are available on the Conference Website