Solving the math problem

Transcription

1 Solving the math problem A new College Readiness Math MOOC gets great marks at home and around the world

2 Overview Only 26% of American public high school graduates have the skills they need to succeed at college. 1 At the University of Wisconsin-System (UWS), the problem was particularly pervasive in the area of math. Great numbers of students were arriving who needed either remedial math, or a change of plans. In a student population of 170,000, the ramifications were overwhelming. In response, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UW-L) developed an online FastTrack math readiness course using the Brightspace Platform. An impressive 97% of students in the pilot project were able to improve their scores and place into a college course. With the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), UWS saw the value of offering the course to the world but quickly transforming it to a MOOC would require unprecedented teamwork and a new approach to teaching. For its shining example of cooperation and diligence, UWS won the 2013 Desire2Excel Award for Collaboration. AT A GLANCE Client University of Wisconsin-System Students 2,512 since inception Level K 12, 2-Year Degree, Undergraduate Solutions Brightspace Online and Blended Learning solution and D2L Open Courses CHALLENGE: Facilitate greater student success across all disciplines and universities Reduce the academic gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged learners SOLUTION: Drive quality collaboration between various departments Provide both synchronous and asynchronous paths for learners Include parents, teachers, and other supporters of incoming students RESULT: 4 months from concept to better math scores 97% of students in pilot place into college math 31% initial increase in test scores MOOC learners range in age from 11 to 87, from over 40 countries Entire high school classes participate Many colleges and universities seek collaboration 1 The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2013 Report 2

3 Challenge Solution FROM A LOCAL SOLUTION TO AN INTERNATIONAL CONCERN The original FastTrack online course had a simple purpose: prepare UWS students for their college math courses. Transforming that concept to a MOOC meant reaching out to a vast international audience with multiple motivations. The students in our math MOOC range in age from 11 to 87, they come from nearly every state and over 40 countries, says Robert Hoar, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UW-L and MOOC administrator. Some want to know what math looks like in America, others are in their 30s and 40s and thinking of returning to school. Some just want the math skills. TEAMWORK WAS NEEDED IN A BIG WAY Serious scaling was required, and it had to be done quickly to reach students before they became part of the university community. Across campuses and departments, experts at UWS came together to develop the infrastructure of the MOOC using the Brightspace platform and the team grew along with content development. Doing this right required a team, and the right team, says Hoar. We had faculty, IT staff, our D2L colleagues, video and content specialists and a large group of math education students at two campuses to act as tutors. It was a big team but it was a great team and I think it s what led to success. Huge changes were needed to accommodate the incredible diversity. For starters, the MOOC required an intuitive design that could be easily navigated by learners who had never used Brightspace technology before. Also, because time zones were an issue, there had to be an alternative to online student meetings without sacrificing the human touch. The needs of incoming high school students, however, remained paramount. And reaching them meant finding a way to include their supporters, including parents, teachers, tutors and friends. At every stage, D2L was there to ensure the functionality of the MOOC. Says Hoar, The content is great but if you don t deliver it correctly it is not going to matter. Both the platform and the team helped that delivery go well. If D2L had not been able to step up at the time, our MOOC wouldn t exist. And because we were familiar with their platform and we had a history of working together, we had the confidence to scale up quickly. 3

4 The Intelligent Agent tool helps ensure no one falls off the radar. If there has been no activity, we can automatically reach out to a student via and say, We noticed you haven t been by the course for a while. Are you stuck? Can we help? It s technology that makes the personal touch possible at this scale. Robert Hoar, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University Wisconsin-La Crosse 4

5 Solution continued A FLEXIBLE CLASSROOM WITH SEPARATE PATHS The reality is that we can t all devote the same amount of time to learning, says Hoar. We realized that most of the people taking the MOOC wouldn t be able to keep up with college students. How do you reach your own students while also reaching out to the world? Hoar and the math MOOC team came to the conclusion that adding an asynchronous approach to the curriculum would allow them to provide math education to just about anyone. What makes our math MOOC unique is that it offers two paths, says Hoar. Students can either go through the seven-week course with an instructor as the guide or they can go at their own pace. From the students perspective, there are no differences in the quality of education. According to Cari Mathwig Ramseier, LMS Administrator and Faculty Consultant at UW-L, the new challenge was engaging students with various motivations. Many of the tools in the Brightspace platform help provide a sense of time and place to anchor the instruction, such as using the News Tool as an agenda and the list of upcoming events on Calendar. Also, using video to provide content creates the feeling that the instructor is there. TEACHING THOUSANDS AND KEEPING IT PERSONAL With almost 2,000 learners in the course, it became impossible to maintain the degree of human interaction that was present in the original FastTrack course. And yet, according to Hoar, anecdotal feedback suggests the interaction helps improve persistence and satisfaction. In part, it s why the original course worked so well. In place of online student meetings, the MOOC offers online tutoring during 38 different hours each week. As well, discussion forums help users connect to others in similar circumstances, such as those returning to college as adults, to build social communities. Instructors also add the human touch through live lectures and . For high school students, the open nature of the MOOC platform allows those who support student learning to join in the experience. Unlike a typical college course, anyone can drop in and take part so students don t have to go it alone, says Hoar. The use of all these tools can be enough so that most students feel engaged, no matter what their motivation, adds Mathwig Ramseier. 5

6 Result STUDENTS GET INTO COLLEGE MATH AND THAT S THE WHOLE POINT By numbers alone, the results are groundbreaking. The average pre-test score for over 1,100 students, including students from both synchronous and asynchronous paths, was approximately 45%. The first one hundred students to complete the course had an average posttest score of just over 76%. Although the important thing is that students who complete the course have a similar experience to the pilot project students, 97% of them were able to place into college-level math courses, says Hoar. I think the MOOC is doing what we hoped it would: it s helping students at home and around the world achieve their goals, whatever their goals may be. We made great use of Release Conditions feature to scaffold students learning through the course, requiring them to perform at a particular level before moving on. The result was that students average scores were quite good with strong overall pre-to post-test improvement. Cari Mathwig Ramseier LMS Administrator and Faculty Consultant, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse THE BIG SURPRISE IS AT HOME What took the UWS team by surprise wasn t the diversity from abroad, but the presence of entire high school classrooms from within the US. Educators are supplementing their curriculum with the MOOC and using it as a mathematics intervention for some students heading for college. What s more, other colleges and universities are reaching out to UWS, inspiring further collaboration: Several institutions have contacted us and perhaps in the not too distant future we will see other MOOCs arise that are similar to ours but meet a slightly different need, says Hoar. We are very open to providing others access to the content, so I think this approach to math education will spread at the grassroots level, and that s great for all of us. 6

7 About D2L A global leader in EdTech, D2L is the creator of Brightspace, the world s first integrated learning platform. The company partners with thought-leading organizations to improve learning through data-driven technology that helps deliver a personalized experience to every learner, regardless of geography or ability. D2L s open and extensible platform is used by more than 1,100 clients and almost 15 million individual learners in higher education, K 12, healthcare, government, and the enterprise sector including Fortune 1000 companies. The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, and Singapore. CONTACT US Phone: (Worldwide) Toll Free: (North America) (United Kingdom and Europe) (New Zealand) (Australia) (Brazil) Fax: info@brightspace.com Web: D2L Corporation. The D2L family of companies includes D2L Corporation, D2L Ltd, D2L Australia Pty Ltd, D2L Europe Ltd, D2L Asia Pte Ltd, and D2L Brasil Soluções de Tecnologia para Educação Ltda. Brightspace, D2L, and other marks ( D2L marks ) are trademarks of D2L Corporation, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Please visit d2l.com/trademarks for a list of other D2L marks. 9