Pathways MOOC Update and Florida Legislation on Remedial Math

Yesterday was the first day of the pathways MOOC that I'm teaching with Heather on Canvas.  Registration is still open if you'd like join.  Follow this link to register.  Here's a picture of the front page of the course:

The course is already active.  I hope to see that activity level continue to grow.  It's fun and informative to talk with other educators and learn from each other. Somewhere we reached a tipping point about developmental math education in the U.S.  It's still a challenge to pilot pathways courses like MLCS in some schools and states but those walls are coming down all the time. It's not that algebra isn't important; it's that it's not the only thing that is important.

Related to pathways, I read an article in the Orlando Sentinel recently about changing legislation on remedial education. It reminded me very much of the changes in Connecticut.  The idea is that we are preventing students from taking college level courses and that with enough support, they can be successful.  Again, if you've taught developmental math and worked with adults who function in terms of reading and math at the 4th grade level, you know that putting them in statistics and just going slower with more tutoring isn't going to make them succeed.  I wish it were so, but it just isn't.  As math teachers, we've all seen students take a course repeatedly and fail it repeatedly.  We know that if they just went back and took the prerequisite course, they would save time and money in the course they're struggling with. You can sit me in a thermodynamics class and go really, really slow and I'm still not likely to pass it because I do not have the foundation skills and knowledge needed for that course.  That is a fundamental truth about some developmental students that has to be addressed and not ignored.  But that's not true for all students.  That is why we need a variety of options for developmental students because one size does not fit all.

One part of the article was encouraging, though:

"Those who take do remedial courses starting in 2014 will be given more options for getting help getting on track, including remedial classes with accelerated schedules. Colleges must submit plans for restructuring their programs to the state by March and make those changes by fall 2014."

Pathways courses like MLCS qualify as a  class with an accelerated schedule.  Most students nationwide who place into developmental math, place into beginning algebra.  That allows them to take MLCS.  And the course is one and done.  Meaning it's one semester. And after it, students can take the commonly required college level math courses like statistics and quantitative literacy.

I believe there are workarounds for other students in developmental math.  For students who don't place into beginning algebra, they could be put in bridge programs using products like MyFoundationsLab.  Not to learn the entire math sequence as an emporium model does, but instead to get the knowledge needed to take a course like MLCS.  Bridge programs do not count as courses, but do fall under placement, something the legislators want to improve as well.

For students headed to the STEM track but who still need intermediate algebra, that content could be integrated with college algebra and possibly make both courses better by making one, strong college level course.  Right now, we go so deep into some skills in intermediate algebra that really don't necessitate that for success in college algebra.  We could cut out some of the overly complicated problems for favor of getting the big idea and being able to use it (a philosophy we use in MLCS) and then move into the college algebra topics where the skill is actually used.  Let students learn the content at an appropriate level and then show them why we taught it.  We could also dramatically reduce the overlap between intermediate algebra and college algebra.  This is related to an idea we use in our college's traditional algebra redesign:  cut out overlap and spend more time on each topic, encouraging mastery and understanding.

All is not lost, but some creative thinking is needed to make things work for all developmental math students.

What will we be doing in the pathways MOOC?

It's interesting to me how MOOCs are affecting higher education.  I'm not interested in using them for traditional courses, but for professional development and training, I think it could be a sound option.  In a perfect world, I would travel to each school that has asked for training and interact with their faculty using lessons and problems.  We would address the questions specific to that college and help instructors feel confident and usually quite excited to teach this new type of developmental math course, a pathways math course.

Unfortunately, real life makes that hard.  I just trained a school last week and enjoyed it tremendously.  They were lively and engaged and it made for a great day.  When possible, that's my goal:  to have to face to face training.  And I do that often.  But when that's not possible, a MOOC can provide a large reach more efficiently.

Our goals for the MOOC are still the same as with the face to face workshops:  engagement.  We want instructors working, talking, thinking and above all, interacting with each other.  These are the same goals in our pathways classrooms.  When those events happen, learning happens and people leave feeling their time was well spent.  We want that to happen in our MOOC as well.

So, what exactly will we be doing?  If you will take the course, this is what you'll do:

First, you will learn about the history of pathways courses.  We don't want to assume everyone knows the difference between Quantway and MLCS, for example.  So we delve into where pathways courses have come from and the timeline of their development.

Then we talk about philosophy.  That is, the philosophy of these courses and your philosophy of teaching.  We want to challenge you to see how you think math should be taught and how that aligns with the approach of these courses.  Often instructors are really excited about teaching these courses, but get uncomfortable when they see a different topic order or they don't see their favorite algebraic method taught when they used to.  Understanding your beliefs and the approach of the course will help make for a smoother transition.

Next we work on what it looks like to solve real problems as opposed to the traditional "word problems" usually seen in textbooks.  We will work on the challenges these problems pose in the classroom and how to overcome them.  We will also work on the role of algebra in pathways course.  It's present but it's different too.

Then we'll move into group work and assessments.  And we'll close with implementation at your school.

Throughout the course, we will have activities to help you explore something, learn something, and put that learning into practice.  This is the same approach we use to teach a pathways lesson.  You will talk to other faculty about challenges, ideas, questions, etc.  We are not the sages on the stage.  We'll share our ideas and experiences but we will also really want to hear from you.  We are lucky to have some participants who have already taught the course.  They can share their experiences so that you'll hear more than just what happens in Heather's classroom and mine.

We will work on a larger project for most of the course that will really allow you to dive into a challenging aspect of the course:  open-ended projects.

By the end of course, you should feel confident and ready to pilot with comfort both in terms of how the classroom will work and also in terms of implementation at your school.  Because we will have a large number of students, we probably won't be able to answer every individual question.  We will do our best to do so, though.  And the peer interaction will also help.  We don't want anyone leaving feeling like their questions are unanswered.

This course should provide growth for the novice pathways instructor to more experienced instructors who have taught a pathways course.  If you just want to observe and learn about them and see what others are doing, that works too.  But the more involvement we have from you, the better for all involved.

Interested?  Go here to register.

MOOC registration going strong, new webinar recording available

If you haven't registered for the MOOC we'll be teaching this summer for Canvas, please do.  Our enrollment is increasing at a great pace.  Click here to register.

Also, I gave a webinar about Math Lit and MLCS a few weeks ago for Pearson.  Here is a link to the recording.

Canvas MOOC Registration Now Available!

The registration for the online MOOC that Heather and I will teach this summer for Canvas learning systems is now open!

Go to this site to register.


Important facts about the course:

• It is an online course.
• It runs from June 3 to June 30.
• It is free.

The most important thing to know is that the course will help you learn much more about pathways courses and how to teach them.

Illinois update and student reactions to MLCS

On April 6 at our AMATYC affiliate's meeting, IMACC, we voted and approved pathways courses.  That same weekend, our MAA affiliate, ISMAA, also approved Illinois versions of pathways courses.  Last week, the Illinois Articulation Iniative's General Education panel also accepted the new courses as alternative prerequisites for the following courses:  general education math, general education statistics, elementary mathematical model, and quantitative literacy.

We've been working for over 3 years to get pathways courses in Illinois as an approved alternative.  Several schools, including my school, have been developing their courses and piloting them.  We were granted pilots on a trial basis, so it's fantastic to be officially approved.

Progress!

In other news, we often hear from schools class testing our book Math Lit for their MLCS courses.  Below are some comments from students in those classes.  Keep in mind that this school is in IL where the course is a 6 credit hour, 1 semester course.  Most states are not using this large of an MLCS course, but instead are teaching a 4 credit hour version.

Comments have not been edited for spelling or grammar.

“I really think this class has helped me a lot. When I came into this I did not know what to expect. At times I struggle, but when I have the groups I think for the most part we help each other to understand. I like that things are revisited because sometimes I may not fully grasp it, but then it comes back around; this time I get it. The class is very fast paced, and at first I was terrified I would fall behind, but I haven’t. I have learned a lot of things I have never heard before or have struggled with. I have grown leaps and bounds since the beginning of class.”

“In this course I learned more than just how to do Math, and solve algebraic equations. We learned what things meant and why the rules we use are the rules we use. Mrs. Thannum and Mrs. Peterson are great teachers and they’re experts at making you remember what we learned. I would recommend this class to anyone.”

“It has been great. I have learned so much. I want to achieve in a higher class but there was much I didn’t understand. Now when I first entered the class, I felt like I was put in a class for dumb people but it changed for me after I started learning. This course is needed very much. It breaks things down for me slower. It repeats what I missed . . . the teachers help explain."

“I like this course compared to others. I have learned more here than all of high school math. The only thing I don’t like is going four days a week and the weight of the Cycle Projects.”

“MAT 099 is an [sic] in your face example of how math should be taught. While not insulting your overall intelligence, it gets as personal/intimate as possible for the student to truly understand what to do by breaking down then showing how to apply the concept. Not just by saying here’s how you do it . . . move on . . . then you are scratching your head in confusion. Schools have entrance exams for a reason. Math, if not your strong suit should be as stated (based) on requirements for program or degree, should be given to ALL students with developmental issues concerning math. Coming from experience having taken 094 and bombed horribly only a semester ago, MAT 099 has by fair taught me how to not only break down the problem, but do it and understand it and actually apply it to real life.  I’m able to understand and apply math reasoning all from this course. As of summer, I will be able to go on to college level math as a result from this course.”

The pathways online course for Canvas will be posted this week for registration.  I will put info on my blog as soon as I have it.

Documents from today's webinar

Below are the presentation packet and redesign model documents mentioned in the webinar.

Mlcs handout with math lit lesson 3.12 from kathleenalmy

Rvc developmental math model packet 2013 from kathleenalmy

Webinar tomorrow

If you'd like to learn more about our book Math Lit, the MLCS course we teach, and see a sample lesson, please attend a webinar tomorrow April 12 at 12 pm CST sponsored by Pearson Education.  You can register here.