LOCATION:   319 Snedecor
                                     
SPEAKER:  Mack Shelley, Departments of Statistics, Education, and

Political Science, Iowa State University

TITLE:The Redesign of Mathematics 150: "Impact and Statistical Analysis"

ABSTRACT:

Mathematics 150 (Discrete Mathematics for Business and Social Sciences) is a course taken by large numbers of students at Iowa State University, including many students who populate courses in Statistics. Recent efforts have been undertaken to redesign this course, as well as others in the Mathematics curriculum. Under a grant from the Pew Foundation, Iowa State University has undertaken to redesign the manner in which it offers Math 150 by shifting to a Web-based delivery format. Faculty and graduate research assistants representing primarily the departments of Mathematics and Statistics and the Research Institute for Studies in Education formed a research team to analyze the impact, particularly on student learning of finite mathematics, of the course redesign initiative. The Pew Foundation was interested in evidence that there was a cost savings from the new mode of course delivery, and that students learned no worse under the redesigned course than under the traditional mode of delivery. This seminar reports the results of linear models analysis of merged institutional data compiled from the Office of the Registrar and instructor records of students taking the experimental Web-based sections of Math 150 and students in traditional sections of the course. Effects of the course redesign are presented regarding student learning and retention of students in the course, with some preliminary information on "downstream" impacts on students in Statistics and other subsequent courses. Some complexities of measurement and of the use of institutional data in this form of analysis are discussed. COFFEE: 3:45 p.m., 104 Snedecor Hall