Alcorn State University
Course Title: College Algebra
Contact: Marchetta Atkins
Alcorn State University plans to redesign College Algebra, which currently enrolls ~600 students annually, a large-enrollment course at Alcorn State. The course is typically taught by different instructors in 16 sections of ~38 students each, eight in the fall and eight in the spring semesters. Students also have access to a small math center.
The traditional course faces a number of academic problems. The quality of instruction is a concern. Students do not gain the critical skills and applications necessary for success in subsequent math and science courses despite passing the course with good grades. There is inconsistent content coverage across multiple sections as well as inconsistent assessment.
Alcorn State will redesign College Algebra using the Emporium Model. Students will be required to spend four hours per week in a math lab, completing their assignments, solving problems and working through online quizzes. Instructors and trained undergraduate teaching assistants (UGAs) will be available in the lab to provide individual assistance. An existing math lab will be relocated and expanded to house 50 computers with space to accommodate more as needed. Attendance will be monitored using a biometric finger print reader. Instructors will also meet with students in a classroom for one hour each week. During the pilot phase in spring 2009, two redesigned sections and four traditional sections will be offered with 150 students in each category. At full implementation, the course will be offered in four sections of 75 students each per semester.
The student-centered learning environment created by the redesign and increased consistency across sections will enhance the quality of the course. Students will be more actively engaged with the material. Hawkes Learning System software, to be used in the redesigned course, provides practice problems with immediate feedback in the form of step-by-step intelligent explanations and demands master certification of homework assignments before students can progress. Face-to-face interaction and individual help will be increased as students are assisted in the lab by instructors and/or trained UGAs.
Alcorn University’s assessment plan will compare performance data from parallel sections. Pre- and post-tests, measuring increases in student learning, will be administered. Performance on a common final exam will also be compared.
The redesigned course will decrease the cost-per-student from $278 to $184, a 34% savings. The savings will be achieved by reducing the number of sections from 16 to eight and increasing section size from ~38 to 75. The number of faculty teaching the course will be reduced from eight to four. The savings will be used to strengthen the math major program. Each of the current instructors will be able to teach a section of another course, and senior faculty will be able to teach more upper-level courses, increasing the variety of courses available to math majors.
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