Math 1070 (Finite Mathematics for Business and Economics)

Math 1071 (Calculus for Business and Economics)

For the first time Math 1070 was offered in an online only version. Within the course there were three broad phases:

Phase 1:

Delivery of instruction material in a modular form addressing specific issues of students’ learning.

•  Clearly stated learning objectives. The course learning objectives describe the outcomes that are measurable.
• The module learning objectives describe outcomes that are measurable and consistent with the course-level objectives.
• All learning objectives are stated clearly and written from the students’ perspective.
• The instruction material contribute to the achievement of the stated course and module learning objectives. The material includes videos, reading material from a prescribed text-book, and authors hand-written and typed notes.
• The purpose of each of the instructional materials and how the materials are to be used for learning activities is clearly stated.

Phase 2:

Learner interaction and engagement was a key aspect of the course design. Engaging students in an effective and consistent manner encourages students to become active learners and affects their overall ability to retain subject matter better.

• Students were encouraged to use discussion boards for question and answer sessions.
• Concept clarification sessions were held during the online office hours three times a week.
• Online office hours were held using `Collaborate” software. This allowed the instructor to use voice, video and white board (through a use of tablet PC) to address any questions that students brought up. This software allowed to have a student-teacher interaction there by emulating the process of in-person office hours.

Phase 3:

Assessment and Measurement was the most critical phase of the course. As such assessment was implemented in a manner where the instructor could get a broad picture of students’ mastery of content. At the same time it allowed the students to measure their own learning throughout the course.

• Online courses are completely asynchronous in nature. The students learn through looking at instruction material away from the instructor. So naturally the big question is: `how to assess the students’ learning while they are outside of the classroom?’. One way this was addressed by including quizzes within the instruction video. The students were quizzed on concepts which were being taught in the video. The quiz would allow the student to choose an answer through a choice of multiple answers. If the answer was incorrect a relevant feedback was given to the student. Then the student was asked to solve the question again and re-answer. The video would not move on to the next section unless the student answered the question correct. On the back end of this process the system kept a track of how many tires did the student need to answer the question correctly. This information was extremely insightful in determining the students’ understanding of the concept being taught in any particular instructional video.
• Students were asked to solve online homework and quizzes using WebAssign.
• There were three exams which were proctored in person. Two midterms and a final exam was used to assess 85 % of the students grade in the course. The students were allowed to come to the school for in-person exam or they were allowed to take the same exam in a proctored environment at various different certified learning centers such as Sylvan.
• Each week a self-efficacy surveys were administered to gauge students’ perceptions on the course in general. These surveys concentrated on student perceptions on course content, instructional material, delivery of instructional material, and learning objectives and outcomes. The response to these questions was used to update material for each subsequent weeks. These surveys were anonymous.

Course Offerings:

• Math 1070Q has been offered in Summer 2012,2013, and 2014 as a fully online course.
• Math 1070Q also has been offered as an hybrid version in Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014 and Fall 2014.
• Math 1071 has been offered as an fully online course in Summer 2013 and 2014.

Funding: Funding for the development of these course was provided by the Provost’s office.