ACCELERATING STUDENTS’ REMEDIATION AT HARCUM COLLEGE USING THE DISTANCE LEARNING TECHNOLOGY

MODEL

PROPOSED BY

Saadia Oulamine

OCTOBER 2011

“All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are

entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for

developing their individual powers of mind and

spirit to the utmost.”

(A Nation at Risk, 1983)

Offering developmental courses in higher education is instrumental to fulfilling this honorable goal, set forth in 1983 by the National Commission for Excellence in Education. This education:

Intends to close the gap in students’ college preparedness Is grounded in developmental psychology theory framework Promotes “cognitive and affective growth of all post-secondary

learners, at all levels of the learning continuum” (NADE, 2011) Provides students with the services and strategies to overcome

the obstacles standing between them and the attainment of their academic and career goals.

There is a continual argument on whether higher education should be the place for this remediation and whether it is cost-effective.

Opponents of developmental education: Deem this education to be a waste of time and of federal money

(Richardson, Fisk & Okun,1983; Levin, 1999 as cited in Brothen & Wambach, 2004 p. 17)

The material presented was taught in high-school or earlier and should have been mastered then.

View developmental students as “just not college material”

(Grubb &Worthen, 1999, p. 173, as cited in Young, 2002, p.6)

Proponents: Deem this education to be a social and economic necessity

Our nation cannot afford losing this group of young people, whom our aging society so deeply need to help propel its economy.

This economy is becoming more and more sophisticated, requiring more specialized skills that only higher education is capable of providing.

(McCabe & Day, 1998; McCabe, 2000)

Whether one is for the provision of this education at the higher education level or not, the reality is that more and more colleges are offering it .

99.6% of the nation’s two-year public colleges, and 70.7% of the two-year non-profit private colleges offered remedial services in the year 2008-2009 (NCES, 2009).

Researchers foresee these numbers to remain constant or grow even higher because of the growing demand for higher education (McCabe & Day, 1998, p. 11-12).

The retention rates of developmental students is not encouraging. Only 17% of the students enrolled in remedial reading, for example, are likely to persist and acquire a Bachelor’s degree (NCES, 2004).

The longer students spend in developmental courses, the less likely they will persist (NCES, 2004).

The average length of time that students spend in developmental education courses is on the increase.

There is a change in the demographics of students attending developmental courses, and college in general:

More adults (19% increase is projected for students aged 25 and over by 2017 according to NCES, 2009)

More females More students are working, part-time or full time

By Fall 2000, only 13% of colleges offered developmental courses at a distance. (NCES, 2003).

Unlike other institutions,Harcum College managed to require only two levels of developmental classes ( 050 and 100 courses).

Students placed in lower-level mathematics, writing and reading still end up spending at a minimum 1 full academic year before attempting program-specific courses.

100% of the developmental courses are offered using the traditional 16-week, face-to-face instructional model.

Computer-based activities are integrated into the curriculum of each course, but only for practice purposes.

Regardless of the extent of needed remediation, all students placed in a particular level of remediation must follow the same curriculum.

Developmental Education at Harcum College, as in most institutions,face the following problems:

It takes a considerable amount of time and stands between students and their ability to take regular college-level classes.

More time leads to more financial debt these students end up having.

It does not accommodate the specific,and often different, learning and personal needs of students.

Consequently Some of these students wind up either failing, withdrawing , or

giving up on their educational and career goals by dropping-out.

Expand Harcum College’s remarkable embrace of technology and distance learning to include developmental education

Condense developmental courses in such a way that students will have to go through one level web-based remedial course(s)

Combine writing and reading into one web-based developmental English course

Thus Develop two developmental courses, Math 100 and English 100,

to be delivered through the college e-Learn Portal, WebStudy

After implementing the proposed distance-learning project: students placed in developmental courses will finish their

required remediation in two semesters or less. students will demonstrate mathematics and English proficiency

levels that are 100% equivalent to those required in college-level mathematics and English.

students will acquire college-level proficiency with 100% more flexibility.

The proposed developmental courses will achieve 90% or higher course retention rates.

Phase one entails a series of discussions and meetings, such as this one, to acquire support for the project and to identify sources of funding.

Phase two includes the process of working with the content experts including the Director of Developmental Studies to sift through the developmental courses and manage to condense them so that only two developmental courses are offered (one for math and one for English).

Phase three is where the courses are developed on the college e-Learn Portal,WebStudy. Two faculty members will be hired and trained, and a partnership with an online tutoring provider will be forged.

Phase four is when the courses will be offered to students. That would be Fall 2012

Sources of Funding Considered:Considering the student population the project will be servicing and

the ultimate goal of the project to bridge the gap in the education of “groups not historically well-served by higher education” (The Lumina Foundation for Education website), the project fits the funding requirements of the following grants:

Carl D. Perkins (The college is already a recipient) Student Support Services Federal Grant (Already a recipient) The Lumina Foundation for Education Grant

The main direct costs considered in the implementation of this distance learning project are:

Course development fee Compensation for two part-time faculty members Training Production material Annual fee of online tutoring that will supplement on-campus

tutoring.

EXPENSE 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 Total for 2 courses

Source of Funding

Course Development

Fee

$1,500.00 $ 0 $ 0 $3,000.00 Lumina Foundation

Faculty $6,300.00 $6,300.00 $6,300.00 $37,800.00 Perkins Grant

Online Tutoring $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $ 5,000.00 $15,000.00 Lumina Foundation,SSS & Perkins Grants

Training $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 3,000.00 Lumina Foundation Grant

Instructional Designer

$ 50,000.00 $ 50,000.00 $ 50,000.00 $150.000.00 College

Production Material

$ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 1,000.00 $ 3,000.00 Lumina Foundation Grant

Total $64,800.00 $63,300.00 $63,300.00 $214,800.00 College, Private & Federal Grants

The technology required to implement the proposed distance-learning solution is already in place. For over three years, Harcum College has forged a tight partnership with WebStudy, the learning management system.

Over 30 online courses have been offered each semester through this e-Learn portal

Some of the programs are 100% online This portal is used to supplement some science courses, such as

Chemistry

The following are some of the features WebStudy offers to achieve the flexibility, interactivity and retention the proposed distance-learning solution has as goals :

The portal provides the students with an educational environment that they can access anywhere and anytime so that they can fit school work into their daily lives much more easily.

The portal offers synchronous and asynchronous communication tools to keep the communication going between the student and the teacher, and among students.

An intelligent tutoring technology through MyWebStudyTutor helps the teacher to monitor students’ progress, help students remain engaged, and thus help retain them.

To assess students’ attainment of the learning objectives laid out for each of the web-based developmental courses: On going graded and non-graded assessment will be given

Multiple choice format True/false format Problem-based assessment in the form of word

problems in math, and topics for discussion in English. Students will work individually and at times in groups

E-portfolios, which will be instrumental for students to track and see their own progress toward the goals set for the course

To evaluate the success of the proposed project:

Qualitative and quantitative data will be compiled and analyzed offer answers to the following questions:

Whether enough students enrolled and continued to enroll in these web-based courses and other web-based courses.

Whether the project made a difference in accommodating students’ learning and personal needs offering them more flexibility.

Whether students learned what they were supposed to learn. Whether the teachers were trained enough and felt comfortable

with the web-based courses they teach and its features. Most importantly, whether the course retention rates of students

improved.

“ If only to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge we

still retain in world markets, we must dedicate ourselves to the

reform of our educational system for the benefit of all--old and

young alike, affluent and poor, majority and minority. Learning

is the indispensable investment required for success in the

‘information age’ we are entering.” (The National Commission on Excellence in Education , 1983)

THANK YOU

McCabe, R.H. (2000). No one to waste: A report to public decision-makers and community college leaders. Washington,D.C.: Community College Press.

McCabe, R.H. & Day, P.R. (1998). Developmental education:a twenty-first century social and economic imperative(ERIC document No. ED 421176) Laguna Hills, CA: League for Innovation in the Community College.( Reproduction Service No. JC 980 320). Accessed on 04/07/2011 from ERIC database.

National Association for Developmental Education.(2011). Definition of developmental education. Accessed on 04/07/2011 from http://www.nade.net/aboutDevEd/definition.html .

National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983). A Nation at Risk . Accessed on 04/09/2011 from http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html .

U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2004).Student effort and educational progress: post secondary persistence and progress. Accessed on 4/07/2011 from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2004/section3/indicator18.asp.

U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.(2003). Remedial education at degree-granting post secondary institutions in fall 2000. Washington, D.C. Accessed on 04/08/2011 from http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/peqis/inc/displaytables_inc.asp

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. ( 2009). Digest of Education Statistics, 2008 ( NCES 2009-020), Chapter 3. Accessed on 03/26/2011 from http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=98.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.(2009).1989-90 through 2008-09 Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System. Institutional characteristics survey (IPEDS-IC:89-99), and Fall 2000 through Fall 2008. on 03/26/2011 from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_330.asp.