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Rio Hondo College

MyMathLab has been used in Rio Hondo College’s Prealgebra course since spring 2000. Students spend four hours a week in a traditional, lecture-format class and complete required MyMathLab homework drawn from MyMathLab’s bank of problems.

Students are encouraged to use the program’s many supplemental help features and to contact the instructor through the program’s e-mail function regarding any course difficulties. In addition, Prof. Jan LaTurno creates optional sample chapter tests for review prior to exams and encourages students to treat them like actual exams by completing them without assistance.

LaTurno cites the increased communication between instructor and students as one of the major benefits of MyMathLab. “Students who don’t ask questions during class are more likely to contact me via the e-mail feature within homework problems,” she says. “But the biggest impact the program has had is on the students’ attitudes toward submitting homework online—specifically, the immediate, round-the-clock feedback they can get,” says LaTurno. “Instead of waiting until the next class meeting to ask questions, students receive assistance right away. They appreciate not having to wait to learn whether they gave the correct answers, and they say unanimously that they don’t want to return to submitting paper homework to subsequent professors once this course is over.”

—Submitted by Jan LaTurno, Professor of Mathematics