Posts published on July 6, 2010
State Should Use Computer Assisted And Distance Learning To Improve Remedial College Courses
Guest bloggers Shawn Kothari and Mohit Agrawal, Princeton University (skothari@princeton.edu)
In 2009 President Obama announced the $12 billion American Graduation Initiative, a program to invest in America’s community colleges and produce 5 million new college graduates by 2020. The initiative represents the federal government’s growing recognition of the role community colleges will play in securing America’s future. We applaud the Obama Administration’s new emphasis on this critical—but chronically overlooked—sector of higher education. In an era that demands advanced training for even middle-class employment, community colleges offer convenient and cost-effective educations. Moreover, courses at these institutions can be attended part–time, allowing flexibility for students to continue employment and raise families.
Despite these potential contributions, community colleges face several hurdles in their attempts to serve students. The chief obstacle is the widely disparate yet largely poor preparation many students have as they enter community colleges: students enter with both insufficient knowledge and skills. At many institutions, students take a placement exam upon matriculation, and a large percentage test into remedial programs known as “developmental courses”. Developmental courses impose many burdens on students. They add time to and raise costs of the degree program, and these courses are not part of the “college” experience students are seeking. Developmental courses also adversely impact community colleges: schools must hire more faculty to teach these high-school level courses, drawing resources away from higher-level programs that impart true college-level skills to students. Most importantly, the number of students who require developmental coursework is sobering—at one particular community college in Virginia, 75% of entering students test into Algebra, the equivalent of an 8th or 9th grader’s math course.
A variety of organizations around the country have studied the problems posed by developmental courses; some, including the National Center for Academic Transformation, have designed and piloted new programs at individual community colleges. These ad hoc programs have shown promise, but their reach and benefits are limited to a few isolated schools. The State of Indiana, recognizing the difficulties faced by students who test into developmental courses, recognizing the costs and other burdens placed on our community colleges by the large number of students who limp through such courses, and recognizing the proven potential of innovative programs in addressing these challenges, should pursue targeted strategies that lower costs of course administration while raising student outcomes. We recommend, as a first step, that Indiana develop a unified computer-assisted curriculum—coupled with distance education components—for developmental math courses.
Computer-assisted courses, largely conducted online, comprise a teaching model that has the potential to be used in a variety of new applications. Computer-assisted courses provide instant feedback and can be adapted to fit an individual student’s needs. These are the exact features needed for an effective developmental math course as students see mistakes as they make them and the computer can tailor the curriculum to focus on the student’s weaknesses. Moreover, computer-assisted courses can be coupled with distance education, allowing students to complete parts of the course from home. This allows the busy community college student more time to balance his work and family lives with his education.
In addition to the academic benefits, computer-assisted courses are cost effective. Creating computer-assisted courses for developmental math helps reduces the need for additional faculty and frees up funding for other programs. Additionally, a coordinated state-level program will avoid unnecessary administrative duplication by each community college, helping to further lower program costs. Moreover, though creating such an initiative entails an upfront investment, grant money is available to cover these costs. Last month, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $110 million to fund innovative programs that replace weak remedial courses. The State should consider applying to the foundation for the necessary seed capital to develop the computer-assisted courses.
Gov. Daniels’s announcement of a $150 million higher education budget cut last December signals the importance of lowering the cost of delivering college-level education. A stronger and better-educated workforce will also help Indiana attract and create new high-paying jobs. We thus strongly urge state lawmakers and education officials to prioritize the implementation of a unified computer-assisted model for developmental math courses at our state’s community colleges
Do Community College Adjunct Professors Inhibit College Completion?
Adjunct Professors have grown to a majority in many community colleges and often teach a majority of remedial/developmental courses. Do these part time professors hinder student progress? They often have no offices at a college and commute to teach at several campuses. The answer to the questions in this blog is we do not know much.
A study of four year state colleges indicates that for every 10 percent increase in instruction of first year students by adjuncts, the probability of these students returning as sophomores drops by as much as 4 percent. insidehighered.com
But there are other studies that show no or positve impact from adjuncts. We need many more controlled experimental studies to draw any conclusions.
