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Ivy Tech Community College

Course Implementation

Course Design

Intermediate Algebra is offered on-site and at extension sites. Classes meet once or twice a week, face-to-face, for a total of three hours a week. In fall 2007, Ivy Tech’s mathematics department adopted MyMathLab for use by all intermediate algebra courses.

Each course consists of 10–12 minimodules. Each module contains at least one homework set, a quiz, a midterm, and a final exam. Students are encouraged to complete at least one module per week.

All classes take place in the math lab, which is staffed by both instructors and lab tutors. There are no live lectures. Each week, students attend proctored, one-hour classes, plus at least one additional hour in the math lab. Students may complete homework during class time or at home. All testing is password protected and completed on campus, in either the lab or a classroom.

Assessments

Use of MyMathLab

MyMathLab is used in every intermediate algebra course to assign and complete required homework and to create and complete chapter quizzes. Students have two weeks to complete weekly homework assignments. They are afforded unlimited attempts until the due date to earn 100 percent. Quizzes are timed (20 minutes), and students are afforded attempts to successfully complete them.

Use of MyMathLab contributes 20 percent to a student’s final course grade.

Results and Data

Prior to adoption of MyMathLab, math was viewed as a “hard” subject, and retention in some classes was as low as 50 percent. Students had no means to receive help in context, and frustration levels—and dropout rates—were high.

Data collected from fall 2007, the first semester in which MyMathLab was implemented, through fall 2009 illustrates both consistent and significant improvements in student success and retention.

Table 1. Intermediate Algebra Final Grades and Retention Rates from Initial MyMathLab Adoption in Fall 2007 through Fall 2009

Of particular note are the following statistics:

• The percentage of students earning Cs has increased by 42 percent.
• The percentage of students failing the course has decreased by 44 percent.
• The retention rate has increased by 12.5 percent.

The Student Experience

Use of MyMathLab promotes student engagement, and most important, perseverence. According to Abdalla Hazaimeh, chair, math and physical science, his students are both more involved in the class and more prepared— thanks to the increased time on task they experience by completing required homework—and therefore are less likely to drop out.

Hazaimeh also points to MyMathLab’s interactive nature and multimedia features as vital contributors to his students’ increased success.

• MyMathLab’s Ask My Instructor feature enables students to receive help before they reach a level of frustration and stop attending class. It promotes communication between instructor and student that is unencumbered by the embarrassment or intimidation many students feel in the classroom.
• Help Me Solve This—together with MyMathLab’s wealth of online videos, tutorials, and other practice aids—supplement what students hear in lecture with the type of assistance that suits their learning styles. Students who must miss a class are able to watch video clips of the content, whereas in the past, those students would likely fall behind and ultimately give up.
• Using the tracking and reporting features found in MyMathLab’s Gradebook, Hazaimeh tracks his students’ progress. He can see what concepts they are struggling with, and he can intervene long before the concepts show up—and potentially penalize the student—on an exam.