RUNNING HEAD: Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 1

Transcription

1 RUNNING HEAD: Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 1 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course Design Project Report 1 Matthew R. Peace University of Florida

2 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 2 I. Title of Project Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course II. Project Description Mathematics coursework is often a struggle for students as evidenced by success rates. Florida Gateway College operates in a rural environment, which results in some students residing over one hour from the main campus. For this reason, online courses are popular and offered every semester. Unfortunately, there is a large disparity between success rates in traditional (brick and mortar) classes and online classes. For example, in College Algebra (MAC 1105) average success rates are at least 15% below traditional success rates. There are numerous potential reasons for the disparity including student readiness, access to technology, and availability of resources. Despite instructors efforts to provide PowerPoint presentations, videos, and other online tutorials, problems persist. The origin of this project is thus to consider the other key differences between traditional and online courses. What is missing? The fundamental component that is missing is the interactions between student and instructor and student and student. The project hypothesizes that the lack of social engagement in current online college algebra classes is a contributing factor to students lack of success. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to design a unit of college algebra that seeks to provide the resources necessary for student success, but also to examine research and instructional strategies to increase student/instructor and student/student engagement in an online setting. The learners served (see the description of the learners below) are freshman/sophomore community college students. As typical for many colleges, a significant portion of the student population is made up of non-traditional students, many of whom are

3 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 3 weak in mathematics. One of the primary motivators to take online classes is due to students work and family schedules. Florida Gateway College has an open enrollment policy to all of its courses so any student who tests into a particular course may register for an online class. In this first report, what follows includes a needs assessment description and results, goal statement, learner description and competencies, and learning context. The report is certainly a work in progress and updates to all sections will occur throughout the project development process. III. Needs Assessment a. Description The needs assessment portion of the project will be conducted in four major phases: student questionnaire, instructor reflection, success rate data analysis, and learning environment examination. The target audience for the needs assessment is online college algebra instructors and students. Student questionnaires will be used (see below) to gauge student needs and characteristics in online mathematics classes. Instructor reflection will be utilized to determine instructor needs. Florida Gateway College success rates will be examined to compare the success of traditional and online college algebra students. Finally, an observation of the state of the current learning environment will provide a baseline for the current strategies and resources being employed in this course. b. Learning Environment Analysis

4 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 4 The instructor of the current online college algebra course allowed access to the course. Florida Gateway College utilizes the Blackboard platform for most of the course content. Students accounts are linked to their registration information so once logging in, they see linked to all of their current courses. Below are a few screen captures to illustrate a few common observations. The course menu provides limited options. Most of the student content is located within the Assignments (Start Here) menu option. Within this area, weeks are placed in separate folders with content and other due dates given within the folder.

5 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 5 The observation shows a one stop shopping experience for students in terms of course content like notes and videos. However, students must login to another website to access homework via the MyMathLab system. In fact, any textbook related materials can only be accessed via MyMathLab. The link to the multimedia textbook will only work from Blackboard if the student is logged in to MyMathLab in another open tab. In the past, the instructor has utilized discussion boards for participation requirements. Students would be required to respond to a prompt and then respond to at least one other classmate. Students often did not participate, or posts/responses did not spark serious discussion about the mathematics. For the fall 2012 term, the instructor removed the discussion board requirement and began offering weekly virtual sessions utilizing the Blackboard whiteboard tool. Unfortunately, attendance has been limited to 3-5 students each week, due in part to the time the session is being offered. Students may complete a quiz as alternative to attending the virtual session. Also, the Blackboard tool does not have a video/audio option, nor does it have a working equation editor. The instructor has been using his mouse as a drawing tool. While course content shows a solid presentation of the material to be learned, there is a lack of context. Some level of engagement occurs during virtual sessions, the results of observation and student questionnaire indicate more engagement is desired by students and instructor. c. Plan Implementation The student questionnaire will be administered online through the Blackboard platform. Students will be given a week to respond as part of a typical participation requirement. The

6 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 6 online college algebra instructor will reflect about needs and characteristics of the typical online college algebra student. The instructor will also comment on the characteristics of the learning environment. What might be improved? Finally, data will be collected via the Institutional Effectiveness department about the success rates of traditional and online college algebra courses for comparison purposes. It is important to recognize that data collected is isolated to Florida Gateway College. Since the course development is based in this specific location, it makes sense to limit analysis to Florida Gateway College instructors and students. d. Needs Identified The needs assessment identified two major types of needs: comparative and felt needs. Comparative needs are those based on comparisons between target and peer groups (Morrison, Ross, Kalman, & Kemp, 2011). The most obvious comparison here is to examine the success rates of students in traditional college algebra sections versus online college algebra courses: (I am still working on getting data from FGC, but for comparison sakes, I remember last year that aggregate success rates in traditional MAC 1105 was around 65%, whereas online MAC 1105 had a success rate below 50%). The data suggests a major disparity between traditional and online sections of college algebra. In contrast, a felt need is a desire to improve performance. In the case of felt needs, instructor and students cite feeling disconnected in online classes, and a need has been identified to reduce the disconnect or lack of engagement in online classes. Student questionnaires and instructor reflection provide the evidence of the need to enhance student engagement in college algebra class. The students also indicate a disconnect between the

7 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 7 material and their professional lives. There is a need to make the course content more relevant to the students. The learning environment analysis suggests that students are provided with an organized platform with clearly marked deadlines and resources outlined on a week by week basis. However, the current online course lacks serious opportunities for real time engagement between instructor/student and student/student. Note: Specific results from the needs assessment instrument is given below in the description of the learners. IV. Goal Statement There are two primary goals of this project. Goal 1: To enhance the learning experience for the online learner by increasing the real time interactions and engagement between student and instructor and student and student. Goal 2: To enhance the learning experience for the online learner by increasing the relevance of the course content to his or her professional and personal life. It is hypothesized that successful achievement of these goals will help to increase the success rates to comparable levels with the traditional classes. [Author s note: Is this a goal or a performance objective? There is a comparative need to increase success rates but I wasn t sure where this would go. I also understand that simply providing more engagement and context might not improve success rates to where the traditional rates are due to other disparity causes.]

8 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 8 V. Description of the Learner a. Entry Competencies Students entering college algebra must have successfully completed MAT 1033 Intermediate Algebra or successfully scored in college algebra on the PERT entrance examination. (Florida Statewide Course Numbering System, 2011). Intermediate Algebra is a course that further increases the skill level of students in basic algebra by focusing on simplifying expressions and solving equations in various forms including: linear, quadratic, rational, and radical. Students also further enhance their factoring skills and are expected to be proficient in basic factoring techniques upon entering college algebra. (Florida Statewide Course Numbering System, 2011). It is assumed that students enrolling in an online course have the necessary technological skills and equipment to successfully complete the course. Students should be able to check their student account, successfully login to the Blackboard platform, have access to Adobe Reader software, and have access to the MyMathLab platform. It is important to note that Florida Gateway College has an open enrollment policy and does not require students to demonstrate the appropriate skills necessary to succeed in an online class prior to enrollment. b. Learner Survey and Description of the Learners Below is a summary of the results of the learner survey along with anecdotal information provided by the instructor based on informal discussions with online students during the semester. These results shown provide a better picture of the types of students who are enrolling in these online classes.

9 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 9 i. I m taking this class online because of my work schedule. This was a common utterance from the students. Most students do not take online classes because they like to work alone or prefer to work at their own pace, but rather they do so out of necessity based on their work and family schedule. ii. Mathematics has always been my weak subject. As alarming as this statement may seem, this was also a common utterance from online students. As evidenced by the results of question 1 of the online survey 68% of those surveyed were very unconfident, unconfident, or in the middle when it came to their mathematical abilities. This would indicate that online mathematics classes are enrolled by a significant number of weak students. The survey indicated that most students felt confident or very confident in their technological skills. In fact, only 4% of those surveyed indicated they felt unconfident or very unconfident in using technology. iii. I feel isolated in these online classes. In response to interaction with the instructor and students, most students felt it was important to have regular interaction with the instructor (92% agreed or strongly agreed with this statement). However, interestingly only 36% agreed or strongly agreed that interaction with other students is important in an online class. Students see the importance of communicating with the instructor, but not with each other. Additionally, when asked about what is the most important part of online classes 68% selected good course materials compared with 4% who selected opportunities to work with the instructor and other students. Going further, 56% of those surveyed

10 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 10 indicated that the Skype or some other type of video conferencing tools should be built in to an online mathematics class and 86% agreed or strongly agreed that having a way to interact with the instructor and other students on a weekly basis will help them succeed in an online mathematics class. The results seem to indicate that students do see the importance of interaction in an online class, but value solid course materials above all else. Finally, an overwhelming 95% of students disagreed or strongly disagreed that course content was relevant to their personal or professional lives. This statistic suggests that content is disconnected from what students feel is useful in their careers and lives. VI. Performance Context and Implication for Instruction The needs assessment and learner survey indicate several important considerations about the instructional design process: 1. Learners come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds. It cannot be assumed that students registering for online mathematics classes are proficient in mathematics. Despite having successfully completed the previous mathematics course, students may still be deficient in mathematics. 2. Learners recognize the importance and expect interaction with the instructor. They feel video interaction will help them succeed in an online class. 3. Learners do not see relevance between the mathematics and their eventual careers or daily lives. The instructional design model described by Puzziferro and Shelton (2008) suggest three relevant good practices: Contact between Students and Faculty, Reciprocity and Cooperation among Students, and Active Learning Techniques. They also describe the

11 Learning through Engagement in an Online College Algebra Course 11 Active Mastery Learning Model which combines Interaction, Application, and Content Mastery. The model seemingly satisfies the two major goals of this instructional design project: interaction and application. The importance of engagement is echoed by Snyder (2009) in the development of a learning community. While learning communities might reach beyond the scope of this project, techniques for increasing comradery and a sense of community could be beneficial. Unfortunately, a scan of the current literature shows very little current work in the area of online college mathematics courses. Finding an example study will be difficult, so this instructional design project will be based on the Active Mastery Learning Model and other general guidelines for online and blended courses. Adaptations for mathematics content and assignments will have to be made as necessary. VII. References Florida Statewide Course Numbering System, Morrison, Ross, Kemp, & Kalman. (2010). Designing Effective Instruction, 6 th ed. Wiley. Puzziferro, M., & Shelton, K. (2008). A model for developing high-quality online courses: integrating a systems approach with theory learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12(3-4), Snyder, M. M. (2009). Instructional-design theory to guide the creation of online learning communities for adults. TechTrends, 53(1),