University of North Texas
Department of Mathematics
Mary Ann Teel
mteel@unt.edu
THE MATH REDESIGN TEAM
• Second semester development phase, will pilot in Fall 2008
• Part of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) of UNT and the
Texas Course Redesign Project
– Five-member team, one tenured faculty, two lecturers and
two graduate students work with design teams from three
other courses in a Community of Practice
• Work jointly with North Central Community College, an area
two-year area college
– Common goal of increased student learning and success
in entry-level math courses.
TARGET COURSES
• Math1010: Fundamentals of Algebra, annual enrollment
~2500
– Service course for students who do not place into
college algebra by the Accuplacer and for students who
are THEA deficient (THEA is a state of TX collegereadiness assessment)
• Math1100: College Algebra, annual enrollment ~3500
– College algebra is a core math course for most nonscience majors
• Math1010/Math1100, new offer piloted in Fall 2007 with
great success
– Math1010, 5-wk accelerated delivery; Math1100
completed in remaining 10 weeks.
THE CONCERN – LOW STUDENT SUCCESS
• Entry level math courses are “gateway” courses for many
students.
• Math1010
– Spring 2007 – 40% DFW rate
– Fall 2007 – 37% DFW rate
• Math1100
– Spring 2007 – 44% DFW rate
– Fall 2007 – 48% DFW rate
NOTE: Students who pass Math1010 and then take
Math1100 have a 65%DFW rate!!!
TRADITIONAL COURSE DELIVERY
• Three lecture hours/week. Instructors lecture; students
“listen” and some “take notes”
• UNT has a well-staffed math lab open 70hr/wk
• UNT has an extensive Supplemental Tutor/Instructor
program
• Very large sections – in fall, 300+ student section; several
100-student sections and many ~50-student sections
• Limited to no instructor-student interaction
• Inconsistency among sections – professors, lecturers,
adjuncts and graduate students, many first year; variations
in content, emphasis and delivery, even with dept syllabi
REDESIGN APPROACH AND METHOD
• Weekly math redesign team meetings, NCTC participates
• Monthly QEP meetings with other course redesign teams
• Monthly math team meeting (with NCTC) and with U of AL
consultant participating by videoconference (open to all
institutions in Texas doing math redesign)
• Develop clearly-defined objective and assessable student
learning outcomes (SLOs)
• Write test items to measure student achievement of SLOs
• “Test” the test items for validity. . . still in progress
• Explore redesign models, visit successful math redesign
sites (VATech, U of AL, LSU)
THE PILOT – FALL 2007
• Two sections each of math1010, math1100 and combo
math1010/math1100
• Pilot emporium lab slated to be completed June 2008 for
Fall 2008 pilot sections, lab to be tested Summer 2008
• Lab will have card-swipe reader for electronic attendance,
40 ISP locked computers and additional seating for five
students with laptops
• Three required lab hours and 1 required class meeting per
week, graded component
• Goal – increase time on task. Students learn math by
DOING math, not just watching it.
COMPARING TRADITIONAL TO REDESIGN
• Collecting data from current math1010 and math1100
courses
• Math 1010
– Pre-Test – All sections will take a 10-question pre-test the
first week of classes; currently validating test items
– Post-Test/Final – All sections will administer a final with
the pre-test questions AND other common test items.
Individual instructors will write the remaining questions.
Student response to common questions used for
comparison
• Math 1100
– Pre-Test – Still under discussion
– Post-Test/Final – will continue with our current policy of
common departmental final
COST SAVINGS
• Possible Sources of Savings
– Use of lower-cost instructional personnel
– Differential staffing in the lab
– Automated grading
– Much smaller “footprint” of class
– Emporium redesign will reduce the instructional cost
per student
ISSUES AND OBSTACLES
• Writing the SLOs . . .essentially done
• Selecting a course delivery system . . . done
• Locating a convenient site for the pilot lab. . . done
• Remodeling the lab site to house emporium. . .
• Developing curriculum for the 1-hr experiential
component class meetings . . . still in progress
THE EXPERIENTIAL COMPONENT
(Face-to-Face One Hour/Week)
• What we’ve considered thus far for Math 1010
– College acclimation and study skills
– Preview of weekly course material
– Related math topic projects, math instructors think
these are great . . . ONLY math instructors
• What we’ve considered thus far for Math 1100
– Preview of weekly course material
– Related, more in-depth math topic projects
– Projects that demonstrate relevance of math for nonmath majors
– Ongoing, story-line type project that utilizes course
topics, e.g. “TV Show Lost”
Dotting the I’s, Crossing the T’s
(Ready by Fall 2008)
•
•
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•
•
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•
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Finalize syllabi for pilot courses
Complete development and validation of test items
Revise SLOs as need arises
Set up courses in MyMathLab (our course delivery
platform choice) for pilot courses
Finalize all-sections pre-test for Math1010
Develop and implement faculty and staff training
Trial run of emporium equipment,
AND
Decide upon, develop and test the material (project,
lesson previews, etc.) for the experiential component
meetings