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University of Wisconsin-Stout

MyMathLab Course Structure

Course Design

Beginning Algebra meets twice a week for a total of two hours; Intermediate Algebra meets four times a week for a total of four hours. MyMathLab homework is scheduled and due each class day. It may be done at any location, but all quizzes and tests are taken in the classroom or lab with a proctor. Students may work ahead.

Assessments

Beginning Algebra

• 5 quizzes, 2 tests in MyMathLab, plus one quiz outside MyMathLab, each with an accompanying practice quiz/test available in MyMathLab
• 21 MyMathLab homework assignments

Intermediate Algebra

• 7 quizzes, 4 tests in MyMathLab, each with an accompanying practice quiz or test available in MyMathLab
• 42 MyMathLab homework assignments
• 5 homework assignments outside of MyMathLab

MyMathLab Implementation

MyMathLab contributes 90 percent to each student’s final course grade. Use of MyMathLab includes homework, proctored tests, and quizzes; prerequisites for some homework and tests; the Individual Settings feature; and the Coordinator course feature.

MyMathLab Course Results

The cornerstone of UW-Stout’s math program is daily computer-graded homework that counts significantly (about 25 percent) toward the course grade and is continually monitored by the classroom instructor, who actively intervenes as soon as a student shows signs of falling behind. What distinguishes this curriculum from exclusively online courses is the blending of online homework and tests with required daily classroom sessions in a dedicated, technology-enhanced classroom/tutor lab complex. Another key factor is a new tutoring service dedicated exclusively to supporting Beginning Algebra and Intermediate Algebra students.

Since its inception in fall 2004, the Math Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) has served 2,140 students. During this time, the combined failure/withdrawal rate for the 501 students who have taken remedial Beginning Algebra under the new system has decreased by 55 percent (from 29 percent to 13 percent). See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Year-by-year data of the percent of students receiving failure or withdrawal grades in Beginning Algebra

Results in the Intermediate Algebra course show a less dramatic, 39 percent reduction in nonpass rates (17.8 percent for 1,639 students over seven semesters versus 29 percent pre-Math TLC). See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Year-by-year data of the percent of students receiving failure or withdrawal grades in Intermediate Algebra

MyMathLab’s tracking features reveal that 95 percent of students are submitting all homework assignments, earning for them an average score of 92 percent. Students are spending an average of 95 minutes on each day’s homework assignment—a figure for which no previous comparison data exist but which most teachers of these courses anywhere would find astonishing. Attendance rates now average 94 percent for Intermediate Algebra and 85 percent for Beginning Algebra. From 150 to 200 students visit the tutor lab per week compared with the 75 to 80 tutoring sessions per semester logged by the campuswide, free tutoring service for students in these two courses before the program began.

In addition to passing these two courses at unprecedented rates, students are registering greater engagement and satisfaction with the learning experience—despite the greater demands placed on them. On an anonymous and voluntary survey distributed to Math TLC students at the end of each semester, 91 percent of respondents indicated that they learned as much as or more than they expected to learn coming into the course; 84 percent said they’d be likely to take a course using this structure again. And despite the prominence of online homework and learning tools, students still rated my teacher as the top factor influencing their learning out of seven choices (online homework, online help, lectures, tutors, my teacher, open lab, textbook)—strong evidence that the personal interaction this program provides in the classroom and lab is an essential feature distinguishing this approach from strictly online and even most hybrid course structures.

Written responses to student survey questions are typified by this verbatim quote: "This class completely changed my views on math. Before this class I hated math and never wanted to do it. I hated math even in grade school! After this course I love math and am considering a math minor. I’m even thinking of being a tutor in the Math TLC next year. I would never have imagined me teaching and helping others with math."