Curriculum Development Annotated Report Excerpts

Excerpt 1 [Oregon State University]

Project Features:
Describes project goals

The Oregon State University calculus curriculum project is committed to using technology in a pedagogically sound manner to improve calculus instruction. In particular, we would like to take advantage of the unprecedented access to numerical, symbolic, and graphical tools that computers and supercalculators allow both students and instructors.

Describes project components

The major activities of the project are:

1. Production of calculus text materials appropriate for the equivalent of three semesters of calculus (through multivariate and vector calculus), special laboratory materials for students, and special training materials for instructors, all designed to take full advantage of numerical, graphical, and symbolic tools offered by technology such as super calculators and computers;
2. Class-testing of these materials in a wide variety of instructional settings, including high school, two-year college, four-year college, and universities; and
3. Provision of instructional workshops and continuing instructional support for the pilot and field test instructors using the curriculum materials and technology.

Excerpt 2 [University of Michigan]

Project Features

The University of Michigan is completely revising its first-year calculus program over a three-year period. This is a first-year progress report on the program, funded in part by the National Science foundation. The main features of the new program are:

Describes project components

• An intensive and ongoing instructor training program for all new junior faculty and teaching assistants, including mid-semester feedback from students followed by consultation
• A classroom environment that incorporates cooperative learning and experimentation by students
• The use of cooperative homework groups
• Major syllabus revision that emphasizes problem solving, geometric visualization, and quantitative reasoning
• The use of the book Calculus (by Hughes-Hallett, et al.) which emphasizes understanding numerically, graphically, algebraically, and through writing
• Integration of the graphing calculator into the curriculum

Describes expected project outcomes

Because of the wide range of possible effects of this new curriculum, we have sought to assess the impact of such reforms on students':

1. Academic behavior (course performance and subsequent course elections)
2. Beliefs about mathematics
3. Motivational attitudes and learning strategies
4. Appraisal of their course experience

Excerpt 3 [Rutgers University]

Project Features:
Describes project goals and components

We have introduced Extended General Physics for science, science teaching, and pre-health professions majors at Rutgers University. Our principal aim was to provide an improved physics instructional environment so that at-risk students could successfully learn and enjoy introductory physics. The factors we stressed in the new course were not new, but the thorough integration of them was. They include (i) minilabs, (ii) group learning and studying, (iii) non-cookbook, student-active laboratories, (iv) an integration and mutual reinforcement of the lectures, laboratories, minilabs, workshops, and tutorials etc., (v) increased contact hours per week with a class size of about sixteen to twenty students per section, (vi) interactive demonstration lectures, (vii) the use of content-rich (Heller) group problem solving, (viii) a parsimonious cost structure and, (ix) an effective support system for the students and training and support for the instructors to foster esprit-de-corps, cooperation and successful mastery of traditional physics topics.

Specifies comparison groups

We carefully compare the results of our approach, designed with students at-risk in mind, with those of traditional physics instruction and make an analysis of the substantial improvements in student retention, satisfaction, and performance, with special attention to gender and ethnic differences. We indicate why our strategy is likely to be effective with all students.

Excerpt 4 [Purdue University]

Project Features:
Describes features of reform strategy

This project is developing and disseminating a comprehensive revision of the calculus course with special emphasis on computers and innovative pedagogical approaches. In this approach students learn to construct mathematical concepts on a computer by writing programs in a mathematical programming language. They use their programs along with a computer algebra system to solve calculus problems. Lecturing is de-emphasized in favor of problem solving and student discourse about their work. Students are placed in permanent teams and they do most of their course work in these teams including lab assignments, homework, classroom problem solving and discussion, and some of their examinations. Instruction is related to research in how mathematics is learned.

Excerpt 5 [American Institute of Physics]

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders

During two academic years (1991-92, 1992-93), four new model curricula for the college-level, calculus-based introductory physics course were tested. The stakeholders consisted of the nine colleges and universities around the country that participated in this test, the National Science Foundation, and the American Institute of Physics.

Excerpt 6 [Oregon State University]

Project Features

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders

During both the 1988-89 academic years, we have used the HP-28S extensively in a full one-year calculus sequence. Three instructors have been involved in pilot-testing classes to date. The special sections of calculus have been small (25-35 students). Students enrolling in the first term of calculus were placed into the experimental section at random. On the first day of classes, the project was explained to the students and they were given the opportunity to switch sections immediately. In successive terms, students have moved both from the experimental to traditional sections and from traditional sections to the experimental.

Excerpt 7 [Anonymous 9]

Project Context:
Presents rationale for project

In the course of learning something new, nothing is more important than practice. The traditional method of teachers assigning homework supports this idea: students need practice in order to learn. In many courses, however, students bypass the learning that is built into the practice. By simply working some introductory problems, or getting answers from other students or class files, many students fulfill course requirements for homework while learning little. This is often reflected in high homework scores but low test scores.

Students, however, are not the only ones suffering under the traditional homework model. The time associated with grading the large number of problems in heavily populated fundamental engineering courses is exorbitant for the instructor. A typical engineering mechanics course, for example, might require 100 problems for each of the 50 to 150 students (5000 to 15,000 problems that must be graded each semester).

Careful delivery of WEB- or CD-based interactive instructional tools has the potential to remedy both problems. Computer-based instruction has been proven to be effective at enhancing student comprehension and retention and, clearly, budgetary constraints as well as improvements in multimedia technology are pushing universities toward more reliance on this approach.

Project Features:
Presents detailed description of project

The treatment is a multimedia software package designed to augment student understanding and exam-readiness while also saving the instructor a considerable amount of time in terms of grading and assisting students. It is administered via CD, DVD, or over a campus network, using the Windows operating system.

The treatment is designed in a modular fashion so that it can be easily linked with a particular textbook. The problems in the text are programmed into the software and the input variables are randomized. The specifics for each problem are stored in an independent database. This modular design simplifies the modification of the software to include new subject areas. The Student Version of the treatment performs the following functions:

• randomizes the variables for a student's homework so that each problem is different for every student;
• instructs the student when calculation errors are made;
• provides students with randomized and timed practice tests to help them gauge their progress and prepare for class exams;
• scores each homework problem and tracks student grades on homework, practice problems, and practice tests; and
• provides a thorough virtual classroom that is searchable by keyword or chapter.

The Instructor Version allows the instructor to:

• assign problems for a semester and easily distribute the assignment electronically (e.g., e-mail or internet);
• print a syllabus of assignments;
• view individual student grades or grades for an entire class;
• import grades into a spreadsheet;
• determine the correct answer(s) for any problem with any set of variables; and
• monitor the amount of time students have spent on the various sections of the treatment.

Excerpt 8 [University of Minnesota-Twin Cities]

Project Features:
Lists the project goals

Goals

The primary goals of Project Developmental Interactive Multimedia Mathematics (DIMM) were to:

1. Investigate developmental mathematics students' attitudes towards learning mathematics through computer-mediated instruction.
2. Examine withdrawal rates, pass rates, and attendance patterns in computer-mediated and lecture courses.
3. Examine conceptual and procedural understanding of students in computer-mediated and lecture courses.
4. Develop an effective computer-mediated instructional approach to meet the needs of students who attend regularly scheduled classes.
5. Examine achievement of computer-mediated and lecture students in subsequent credit bearing courses.
6. Examine how effectively the project used the college's resources.

Excerpt 9 [University of Minnesota-Twin Cities]

Project Features:
Compares and contrasts the intervention group (computer-meditated courses) and the comparison group (lecture courses)

Description of Computer-mediated and Lecture Courses

As a starting point, so that that the discussion and outcomes in this report can be better understood, a description of the computer-mediated and lecture courses is provided. Specifics about the research activities used to address the above questions will then be discussed. The courses discussed in this report are elementary algebra and intermediate algebra and were offered in an institution with a strong developmental education focus. This focus emphasizes placing students into appropriate courses, providing students with timely and useful feedback, intervening when necessary to keep students on-track, and developing course structures that encourage student-instructor interactions.

Commonalities of computer-mediated and lecture courses

The computer-mediated and lecture courses shared a number of common attributes. First, all students were expected to attend every class. Even though computer-mediated students could use the software outside of class, they were still expected to attend regularly scheduled classes. This was in part to reduce the chances of students falling behind because they failed to take the time to study outside of class. It also provided the instructional staff an opportunity to provide feedback to students daily regarding their progress, provided opportunities for students to obtain assistance in learning the mathematics from the instructional staff and classmates, and contributed to the students' sense that they were enrolled in a class, rather than merely coming and going from an open lab. Although we recognized that for some institutions and for some students, an open lab may provide valuable flexibility, we decided to require attendance in regularly scheduled classes because most of our students were 18 or 19 year-old freshman that were full-time students.

Second, all students were assigned homework to be completed using paper and pencil to be turned in for grading on a set schedule. This was done in part to foster students' development of the necessary skills but also to provide information to the instructional staff about students' progress and opportunities for instructors to provide feedback to students about their mathematical understanding. Also, students in all courses were administered quizzes and exams on a set schedule. All students were given a schedule at the beginning of the term that included the content to be covered each day, along with the scheduled homework, quizzes, and exams. Even though students in computer-mediated courses were given flexibility in the pace that they learn each day, these courses were not self-paced because students were expected to follow a set schedule.

Third, all students received two progress reports during the semester. Copies of the progress reports were also given to students' advisors. The progress reports contained information such as students' attendance, grades, and written comments from the instructor. These progress reports, along with academic alerts when appropriate, are an integral part of the process at the General College for providing feedback to students and initiating intervention by advisors to foster student success.

In summary, the computer-mediated and lecture courses were both highly structured. The schedule of assignments and assessment dates were pre-set and adhered to; students were expected to attend all classes and instructors provided regular feedback to students about their progress and provided assistance to students in learning the mathematics. Progress reports along with academic alerts were used to keep students and the advising staff apprised of students' progress.

Differences in the computer-mediated and lecture courses

The primary difference in the computer-mediated and lecture courses was how students learned the mathematics while in the classroom. In the computer-mediated courses students spent most of each 50-minute class period engaged with the Interactive Mathematics software from Academic Systems. The software presents the concepts and skills for each lesson using animation, video, voice, and graphics. Unlike many software packages, the Academic Systems software provides a thorough presentation of the concepts, and does so using interactive multimedia. Unlike drill and practice software, the Academic Systems software was created to provide multimedia presentations of the concepts. It was these presentations, along with embedded practice items and immediate detailed feedback, which provided a mechanism for students to learn mathematics via software as opposed to listening to a lecture.

The lecture courses, like the computer-mediated courses, typically enrolled 3-35 students. In the lecture courses the instructor presented the concepts and skills on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. Instructors tended to ask students questions as they presented in part to engage the students in the lesson and also check their understanding. Instructors also answered students' questions, provided problems for students to work for practice after a new concept or skill was introduced, and in some cases, incorporated collaborative learning activities.