PILOT STUDY 5
| Institution: | UTA (Mathematics, College of Science) |
| Course: | College Algebra (online course) |
| Structure: | Lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, synchronous weekly webcasts, on-campus exams, Two Dynamic (8-weeks) and Two Traditional (16 weeks) sections |
| Students: | 690 |
| Staff: | 12 |
| Pilot: | Aug – Dec 2017 |
Description: The course was selected due to the higher than normal percentage of students who withdraw of fail compared to other online courses. Many students who enrol are underprepared for the courses content since it is for non-STEM and non-Business majors. The high failure rate not only slows down the students’ progress towards graduation but also adds to the financial burden of their education. Additionally, the dynamic course is unique: it is offered only for students completing their Bachelors of Science in Nursing online. Comparing sections of students in the same major against students from a variety of majors can contribute to the knowledge base for online course development, formats, and feedback models.
Prior to implementation of the OnTask Pilot Study, interviews will be conducted with the course instructors and historical student data (demographics, grades, etc) will be analyzed to identify specific characteristics, learning tasks, and behaviors that correlate to student success and to instances where timely, specific feedback could lead to an increases in the students’ likelihood of success in the course. The research team will work closely with the instructors to develop the intervention strategies.
This project aims to:
- use empirical methods to identify specific pedagogical actions that teachers can design to support student learning by assessing the impact of timely feedback and interventions designed to address specific student learning tasks, characteristics and behaviors;
- conduct student and instructor interviews at the end of the pilot study to compare student academic performance and engagement data to prior course outcomes to assess change in student performance.
For more details, contact: Lisa Berry lberry@uta.edu or Dr Matt Crosslin matt@uta.edu
