Chattanooga State Technical Community College
Course Title: Basic Math, Elementary Algebra and Intermediate Algebra
Contact: Saundra King
Status: This project, which originated as part of the Tennessee Board of Regents Developmental Studies Redesign Initiative, 2006 – 2009, was not completed successfully. For more information, contact the project contact listed above. The project plan serves as a good example of how to think about redesigning a large-enrollment course.
Chattanooga State Technical Community College plans to redesign three developmental math courses: Basic Mathematics, Elementary Algebra, and Intermediate Algebra. These three courses serve ~3600 students during the fall and spring terms. The majority of the students are currently taught in a traditional lecture format with one instructor teaching up to 28 students in a class often supplemented with computer-based homework using MyMathLab. Students also have the option of working in a lab setting using MyMathLab to complete all homework.
The traditional courses experience a number of academic problems. Low student success rates (excluding withdrawals) range from 51% to 64%, making it necessary for students to either repeat the entire course or drop out of college. Students must progress at the same rate with little attention to individual learning styles. They are allowed to retake tests, but they are also required to learn new material before the prerequisite skills have been mastered. Students may pass the course, but there is no guarantee that they have actually mastered all of the concepts needed to succeed in subsequent courses. Additionally, the percent of non-developmental mathematics students passing their first college-level math course is ~6% higher than the students who have completed the developmental math sequence. Their GPA is also ~.34 points higher than the developmental math students in the same courses.
The college's redesign plan will modularize the course and use the Replacement Model. Students will spend two hours in class and two hours in a computer lab each week. The computer lab will be open ~65 hours per week, staffed by professional tutors, faculty and student tutors. At the main Amnicola campus, students will be placed into large sections of ~90, up to a maximum of 110 students. The sections will be team-taught by three instructors. Two will hold large class lectures for students who are progressing in a standard sequence. The third instructor will teach two module sections, one for students who are ahead of the standard sequence and one for students who are falling behind. At CSTCC’s satellite campuses, a similar two-plus-two arrangement will be used, but one instructor will teach up to two modules.
Quality will be enhanced by standardizing content and assessment across all sections. The module approach will support various learning styles and eliminates the conflict of mastering multiple topics simultaneously. Students in this active learning environment will be able to progress at their own rate, receiving immediate feedback from the software and one-on-one assistance in the lab. They will be encouraged to work collaboratively on the homework. When the redesign is fully implemented, students who fail a module will be able to pick up where they left off and not have to repeat the entire course. Students also may take challenge tests for module placement.
Plans for assessing the impact of the course redesign on student learning include collecting baseline data from traditional sections from fall 2004 through spring 2007 and comparing the data to that collected from redesigned sections. Course grades, using common criteria, will be compared as well as course completion and withdrawal rates. As students in redesigned courses move into college-level courses, their performance will be compared to that of students from the traditional developmental courses.
Cost savings will be achieved by reducing the number of sections from 162 to 40 annually and increasing section size, thereby reducing the number of faculty teaching the course. Faculty previously taught sections of ~22 students. In the redesign, faculty will team-teach sections of 90 to 110 students. The teams will be made up of both adjuncts and full-time instructors. In the traditional format, 53 full-time instructors and 55 adjuncts were used annually to cover the 162 sections. In the redesign, only 40 full-time instructors and 20 adjuncts will be involved. Although tutors were part of the traditional course, their role and time have more than doubled in the redesign. CSTCC's cost-per-student will be reduced from $191 in the traditional format to $164 in the redesign. The annual savings of more than $100,000 will be used to increase faculty training and opportunities for professional development and to improve facilities and infrastructure at CSTCC.
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