Developmental Math
Workshop
January 20, 2005
(held at UW Fox Valley)
Developmental Math
Coordinator Report
George Alexander
(1) George shared MAT 09x assessment results from the fall 2004 semester. Uniform assessment questions were given to all instructors of Elementary Algebra (MAT 091, 095 and 097). 455 students participated in the actual assessment, either online or in class, depending upon the choice of instructors. The full assessment report for Fall 2004 is available online on the developmental math website. The workshop group discussed aspects of the assessment method, including questions, format, delivery choices, and scoring schemes. While we have made strides in providing consistency between semesters, some work remains here. Some instructors who gave the paper exam reported scores differently (and therefore results of exceeded, met, or failed to meet expectations differed) from the online test, which scored the answers automatically. More work is also necessary to expand the question pool. Finally, some instructors requested that students have a chance to try a sample set of questions before the actual online assessment exam.
(2) George also distributed a handout showing trends in enrollments for different courses in the math department. MAT 110, MAT 105, and MAT 09x are consistently the big three each semester. See the enrollment patterns on the developmental math website.
(3) George shared a draft proposal for adding a new course
number to the UWC Catalog. The proposal is for a variable credit (non-degree)
course title “Mathematics Tutorial”, which could be used by campuses seeking to
expand math tutorial options through a supplemental instruction section. The
idea parallels the ENG 099 “Basic Writing Tutorial” already in the catalog.
Currently we have no consistent catalog number to use supplemental instruction
sections, which are being tried out on a few campuses. With a single course
number, we would be in better position to assess and evaluate the effectiveness
of the extra instruction credits that some campuses are assigning to high risk
students enrolled in our standard math course sequence. In particular, Baraboo,
Marathon, and