Marchetta Atkins, Mathematics InstructorAlcorn State University

Alcorn State, Mississippi 39096

College Algebra16 sections

Traditional course structure: Lecture 3/per week, practical applications, online assignments, weekly quizzes and exams.

Goals of Redesign Project:1.Improve critical application skills2.Increase consistency in multiple sections3.Cost benefits4.Increase use of technology to improve student learning5.Encourage students to become independent and critical thinkers6.Build students self esteem and confidence

Student ReactionsChallenges

• 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 ReactionsChallenges

• 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.

TechnologyChallenges

• Availability of internet access

• Web test questionsHow 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.