Marchetta Atkins, Mathematics Instructor
Alcorn State University
Alcorn State, Mississippi 39096
College Algebra
16 sections
Fall Semester
Sections/Number of Students
01- 42
02-50
03-48
04-44
05-45
06-61
07-31
08-36
051-12
Spring Semester
Sections / Number of Students
01-52
02-18
03-64
04-70 Redesign(Pilot)
05-58
06-40 Redesign(Pilot)
051-40
Traditional course structure: Lecture 3/per week, practical applications, online assignments, weekly
quizzes and exams.
Goals of Redesign Project:
1. Improve critical application skills
2. Increase consistency in multiple sections
3. Cost benefits
4. Increase use of technology to improve student learning
5. Encourage students to become independent and critical thinkers
6. Build students self esteem and confidence
Student Reactions
Challenges
• Most students prefer traditional classroom instructions with a teacher.
• Some students want to transfer to another school with traditional
classroom structure.
• Students complain that they could save money by taking on-line course
and stay home if they have to teach themselves.
How did we meet the challenges
•
Explain to the students that other universities are moving towards the redesign
structure and not just Alcorn.
•
Explain that they will get the one-on-one instruction and immediate feedback.
•
Software Hawkes-learning systems has Instructor, tutor, and step-by-step
instructions. The students will get immediate feedback from HLS.
Student Reactions
Challenges
•
Students complain of not being able to bring friends with them to the lab to
assist them with their homework.
•
Ensuring that the students do their own work.
How did we meet the challenges
•
Faculty members and tutors closely monitor students in lab to ensure that
they do their own work.
•
Fingerprint machine to monitor students time in lab.
•
60% of the student final grade comes from exams, midterm and final which
are all proctored exams.
Technology
Challenges
• Availability of internet access
• Web test questions
How did we meet the challenges
• Extend lab hours and assignment due dates and revert to traditional
instruction.
• Using Hawkes-learning System the students can work off-line to do
homework assignments
• Working with Hawkes-Learning to develop a better faculty designed test
bank. You can type in your own questions in HLS and the system
automatically generates more questions.
Technology
Challenges
• Lab hours
• Location of lab
How did we meet the challenges
• Possible solution - adjustment of faculty work hours to facilitate
extended lab hours. Lab is open only from 8:00 to 5:00 daily.
• Limit access to lab area. The university is currently working on
enclosing the area where the lab is located on the 2nd floor of the
library to have limited access.
Alternate Staffing
Challenges
• Reliability of peer tutors
• Selecting peer tutors
• Training tutors
• Supervision of tutors
Alternate Staffing
How did we meet the challenges
• Provided guidelines on expectations of peer tutors.
• Administered a pretest with a minimum grade of “B”.
• Peer training is provided through math department and tutors must
complete training prior to acceptance.
• Tutors must complete certification in the software we are using in
each chapter covered in the course.
• Peer tutors are supervised by director of math center and faculty.