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Indiana University Southeast

Supported by the National Center for Academic Transformation, in fall 2010 Indiana University Southeast piloted an Elementary Algebra course redesign whereby students met one day a week in a classroom and one day a week in a lab. As students became more familiar with MyMathLab, the course transitioned into a fully lab-based course, in which all work except the final exam—amounting to 80 percent of the final course grade—is completed using MyMathLab.

As of midterm, 54.5 percent of students in the pilot courses are earning As or Bs—which is approximately 15 percent more than the percent of students in the traditionally delivered, lecture-only courses. Delaine Cochran, senior lecturer at the school, predicts that the numbers may go up—but won’t go down—as more and more students complete the work.

In addition to increased levels of student success, Cochran reports that requiring use of MyMathLab in a lab setting has improved students’ self-confidence and their attitudes about math. “Students who have never before gotten a good math grade now are,” she says. “As an instructor, these are the stories I previously only dreamed of.” —Submitted by Delaine Cochran, Senior Lecturer