About five years ago, the Technology Fee Committee funded the mathematics department to create an instructional computer lab (room SE 271), a year later a second instructional computer lab (room SE 340/350), and two years later a third instructional computer lab (room SE 314), in order to improve student achievement in lower-division mathematics and statistics courses. (Funding was also obtained from the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science for space renovation as well as support for student assistants to aid the learning of students in these labs.) The goal has been to expand use of a hybrid model of teaching, in which some lecture time is exchanged for laboratory time where students can work on homework online, view videos that supplement course content, and obtain immediate feedback from teaching assistants and the instructor. Courses supported in these computer labs under this model of teaching include Intermediate Algebra (MAT 1033), College Algebra (MAC 1105), and Introductory Statistics (STA 2023). The computer lab in room SE 271 is also used for lectures in Introduction to Computational Mathematics (MAD 2502), Probability and Statistics for Engineers (STA 4032), Applied Statistics 1 STA 4234), and various graduate courses in statistics and the department’s Master of Science in Teaching degree program. The total demand for all these courses is currently in excess of 4500 students per year.
This hybrid model of teaching is based on the premise that requiring students to concentrate on course assignments, in the presence of qualified personnel who instruct and help them, will yield significant benefits. (See http://www.thencat.org/PlanRes/Math%20Lectures%20Editorial.htm.) Under this model, a computer lab is used as an “extended classroom,” and students are required to attend it for a portion of their class time, to complete homework, quizzes and exams. Undergraduate teaching assistants, as well as faculty, are available to instruct and help the students. We propose that, for a three-credit class, students be required to attend a formal lecture for two hours per week and work in the extended classroom for two additional hours per week. To force students to do mathematics in the extended classroom, software has been installed to prohibit access to any other programs.
Our next goal is to implement this extended classroom model in Methods of Calculus (MAC 2233), in order to improve student success rate in this fundamental IFP course, which regularly has enrollments of more than 1000 students per semester. Because our current labs are at capacity, this goal will require the construction of a new computer lab dedicated to Methods of Calculus. The Dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science has allocated space on the second floor of the Science (SE) Building for the construction of this lab, and the current project proposes to outfit this space as another mathematical sciences instructional computer lab suitable for extended classroom application.
Our experience with Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, and Introductory Statistics has re-validated the course redesign approach that we have taken. Thus, the new lab, with its proposed 30 computer terminals, is absolutely essential to the continued improvement of lower-division mathematics instruction at FAU. We want to have this lab operational by fall 2015.
