Case Studies
University of Alabama
Founded in 1831 and located in Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama (UA) was Alabama’s first public college and today serves some 24,000 students from all 50 U.S. states and 86 countries. Prior to 2000, UA was teaching six precalculus math courses to 6,500 students each year in traditional, lecture-based settings, taught by instructors and graduate teaching assistants. Faculty struggled with the challenges typical of traditional math instruction: inconsistent coverage of objectives, a high course-repeat percentage, a decrease in student retention, and drop/fail/withdrawal rates as high as 60 percent. The precalculus experience was frustrating both faculty and students. Something had to change.
Faculty and administration assessed the situation and identified a “dream solution”—an alternative structure that was learner centered, supported multiple learning styles, provided consistent presentation of material, allowed students to work at their own pace, reduced resource demands, and most important, increased student success. They found this type of flexibility and effective presentation in MyMathLab, which built on the Math Emporium model developed by Virginia Tech and the National Center for Academic Transformation’s Course Redesign program. “We needed a dramatic change in student success in a manner that didn’t require a significant increase in resources,” says Joe Benson, senior associate dean in UA’s College of Arts and Sciences. “MyMathLab and the Course Redesign model enabled us to balance the additional needs of this technology-assisted learning with cost savings in time and personnel.”
In summer 2000, through a $200,000 Pew grant, UA’s College of Arts and Sciences assigned a 70-seat computer lab to the course, established the Mathematics Technology Learning Center (MTLC), and taught five sections of Math 100 using the redesigned format. Fall 2000 saw 18 sections of Math 100 being taught in the MTLC. “We started with very low pass rates: below 50 percent,” says Benson. “In the fall of 2000, we went from 40 to 50 percent. And we learned that it takes time. Administrations need to realize that redesign is unique to each institution. And you have to be patient. Our progress has continued; our numbers go up more every semester. Today our pass rates are in the mid 70 percent.”
By spring 2006, Math 100 pass rates had risen an average of 20.2 percent from 2000 rates, with the percentage of As and Bs increasing from 36.7 percent to 58.3 percent. For those courses in which the department had not fully made the switch to redesign, side-by-side data was compelling: not only did the MML-redesigned Math 121 course have a significantly increased pass rate compared with its traditional counterpart (64.7 percent versus 51.3), but also its failure rate decreased and its withdrawal rate dropped by more than half.
As time passes and studies become more longitudinal, institutions like UA move toward a greater awareness of how MML works best—namely, as part of a larger redesign that includes mandated and standardized use by students. “There’s no doubt about it; required attendance in the labs means higher success rates,” says Benson.
Math 112—UA’s pesky precalculus class—is the cohort to Math 100. Those students who came out of an MML-redesigned Math 100 class passed their subsequent class, Math 112, at an average rate of 71.3 percent compared with the overall average of 48.3 percent. Precalculus is no longer frustrating faculty and students.
Today UA is experiencing a planned growth in enrollment— and has added approximately 5,000 students in the past four years. “MML and the redesign model have enabled us to deal with our rapid growth in an efficient manner,” says Benson. “In our mind, this is a better way to present the material. Students learn math by doing math. MML requires students to do more math—and thereby achieve greater and deeper learning. I’m not aware of anyone who’s made the change who’s seen a decline in success rates. Everyone’s pass rates may not increase as dramatically as ours, but we’ve been at this for many years. Instructors simply need to be patient.”
