Math Learning Center
Executive Summary
Program Description
The Math Learning Center is a drop-in center which supports the classroom instruction of students enrolled in the following courses: Math 60, Math 70, Math 80, Math 99, Math 107, Math 110, Math 111, Math 112, Math 124, Math 125, Math 126, Math 191, Math 192, and Busad 175. This learning assistance includes maintaining a comfortable space where students can work individually or collaboratively and providing 1:1 and small group instruction, handouts, sample tests, solutions guides, books, computers, calculators, and video tapes. The individual instruction is generally available within three minutes. Typically students are assisted for only a few minutes at a time so that they have opportunity to work with their classmates and to develop their own problem-solving skills. This level of help seems to be appropriate for most math students.
The MLC is an integral part of the Mathematics Program and serves as a supplement to instructors' office hours. The Center is open 48.5 hours a week and is directed by a tenured member of the math faculty and approximately 20 hourly employees who represent considerable diversity. Fifteen of these employees are learning assistants and the remaining five serve as greeters / office assistants.
Program Analysis
The Math Learning Center has a large and varied clientele. The Center serves over 700 students each term, which represents about 57% of the eligible students. These students average between 8 and 9 visits during the term.
A recent study showed that the MLC serves a cross-section of the math student population in most every respect with one major exception: those who used the MLC more than two times during a particular term had a direct correlation between the grade they received in their math course and the number of times they visited the Center.
The vast majority of MLC users who complete the annual surveys claim to be very satisfied with the offerings of the Center and the assistance they receive from the Learning Assistants. They also believe that coming to the MLC improves both their grade and their skills in mathematics. The comparatively few complaints included learning assistants who explain too quickly or whose English is difficult to understand. Students also noted that the MLC is often too noisy, too crowded, and that there should be more learning assistants.
To better understand why some students do not use the Math Learning Center, a survey was conducted in four math classes during the seventh week of the term. The students found the hours convenient and almost all students who came to the MLC had a good experience or did not think much about it either way. (In other words, it was not an unpleasant experience which kept students from making more use of the Center.) The results indicate that the MLC has a significant positive impact on the students who avail themselves of its services. Almost all students recognize the value of the MLC and view it as an important "safety net", even though they may not take advantage of it.
Changes / Future Directions
Staffing
The number of work-study study students with sufficient math and language skills to serve as learning assistants has plummeted. As a result, the MLC must rely almost entirely on hourly employees. Unfortunately the $7.18 starting salary, even for someone with a degree in math and considerable experience, makes it difficult to recruit good learning assistants. As a result of the shortage of capable work-study employees, the MLC is faced with rising costs and the danger of falling quality.
Since hourly employees are generally SCC students, there is a lack of continuity.
Hour-to-hour: Employees leave to attend class and so the MLC is understaffed for
10 minutes each hour
Term-to-term: Approximately half of the staff leave at the end of each year, and so
an inordinate amount of time is spent recruiting and training new employees.
To relieve some of this difficulty, the Director has requested that the five hourly employees who serve as greeters / office assistants be replaced by a full-time office assistant. As of January 2002, this request has not been granted.
Students Served
The Math Learning Center tends to attract the more motivated students in transfer-level courses. Although considerable headway has been made, lower-level students continue to be underrepresented. Likely the completion of the new library will relieve some of the congestion in the MLC, and then it would be appropriate to renew efforts to encourage these students to use the Center. In particular, the Director is devoting a sabbatic leave to study ways the MLC could assist math students with learning disabilities.