Niagara County Community College
Course Title: Introduction to Statistics
Contact: Dan Miller
Niagara County Community College (NCCC) plans to redesign Introduction to Statistics, the course with the largest enrollment of all mathematics courses at NCCC. Enrolling ~527 students annually, the course is offered in a traditional lecture format. Taken by most mathematics majors, the course has experienced a large enrollment growth rate over the last several years since it has become a required course in eight other majors. Many students using it as a core mathematics component to transfer to four-year institutions.
The traditional course suffers from two problems, low success rates and inconsistency in course delivery. The passing rate in fall 2007 was 63%, creating a roadblock to progress for a significant number of students. A second problem is that the course lacks consistency across sections. During fall 2007, eight of the ten sections offered were instructed by full-time faculty. Current trends show an increase in the number of sections instructed by adjunct faculty. The redesigned course will provide a structure for consistent delivery that is difficult to achieve with the current structure.
NCCC will redesign Introduction to Statistics using the Replacement Model. Students will be grouped into double sections, with one full-time and one adjunct faculty member team-teaching each section. Classes will meet in a classroom with computer work stations for each student. At least two thirds of the weekly class time will involve individualized instruction and graded homework with immediate feedback using MyStatLab. Group work and/or projects will be assigned to investigate statistical simulations through applets.
The redesigned course will enhance the students’ educational experience by creating an active learning environment. The online components will provide more opportunities for students to work through problems at their own pace. They will receive immediate feedback as they solve problems and can view step-by-step solutions to any that cause them difficulty. Students will receive individualized assistance from the instructors and may also obtain additional assistance from tutors in the math center. They also will be required to practice problems in a low-stakes environment before they are allowed to complete the hourly exam. Team planning and implementation will achieve consistency across sections by using a standardized syllabus and delivery format. This will insure that students are uniformly prepared for subsequent mathematics courses. In addition, the math department intends to apply the redesign model to other mathematics courses, so students will benefit from the similarity of structure as they move from course to course.
Student learning outcomes will be assessed by comparing student performance on a common final exam administered to traditional and pilot redesigned sections in spring 2009. This will provide baseline data to compare the full implementation of the redesign in fall 2009. Questions on the final exam will be grouped into distinct topics to allow comparison of performance on a topic-by-topic basis as well as on overall scores. Univariate ANOVA will be used to assess strengths and weaknesses related to specific learning objectives. Chi square tests will also be used to compare completion and passing rates between traditional and redesigned students.
The redesigned course will reduce instructional costs from $339 to $162, a 52% savings. Cost reduction strategies include reducing the number of full-time faculty from eight to five and increasing the number of adjunct faculty from two to five. Each full-time faculty member will partner with an adjunct faculty member to team-teach two sections simultaneously. The redesign will allow the full-time faculty members to teach higher level courses in the department.
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