The Accelerated Instructional Program Review Narrative Report

1. College: College of Alameda

Discipline, Department or Program: Mathematics

Date: October 12, 2012

Members of the Accelerated Instructional Program Review Team:
Claudia Abadia

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2. Narrative Description of the Discipline, Department or Program:

Please provide a general statement of primary goals and objectives of the discipline, department, or program. Include any unique characteristics, degrees and certificates the program or department currently offers, concerns or trends affecting the discipline, department or program, and any significant changes or needs anticipated in the next three years.

The primary goals and objectives of the Mathematics Department at the College of Alameda are to equip our students with:

·  basic math skills and knowledge

·  the math skills that are required to succeed in their chosen fields of study.

·  the critical thinking and reasoning skills needed to excel in their studies, at work, and in their life

Our program offers an AS degree and an AS-T in Mathematics.

Mathematics instruction is rapidly changing given the addition of online and in-class technology resources for the discipline. The COA Math Department has made improvements to its program by developing and offering hybrid, web enhanced and online courses in mathematics.

The math requirement to earn an AA degree is now Math 203. This was changed in 2009. In Fall 2009, COA filed changes to the coding of Basic Skills math courses to make Math 202 Geometry also satisfy the AA degree’s math requirement. (All Peralta colleges in the District were consistent in this action.) As a result, COA has seen an improvement in enrollment in Math 202. More students are also completing the prerequisite for Math 50.

COA Math Department has noticed an enrollment trend in the last few years. Many students want to “fast-track” their math education by taking more than one math class in a semester. To address this need COA has offered Math 248AF, an experimental course that is an Algebra for Statistics course offered for non S.T.E.M. majors. COA might want to explore the development of other short-term semester long math sequences like Math 201/Math 203.with a lab component that would helps students complete their basic skills Math course in a semester as opposed to a year..

The Math Department has seen the average class size in basic skills math courses increase over the last few years. Pedagogically this jeopardizes student learning, retention, success, and persistence. Average class sizes needs to decreased to a maximum- 40/class The optimal class size for these basic skills courses is 35 students per class. This is evident at other Peralta colleges where the class size is smaller and not 50 students/class. Safety is another concern with increased class size.

Headcount by Department by age
Campus Descr Long / College of Alameda
2010 / 2012 / 2011 / 2013
Headcount / Headcount / Headcount / Headcount
Subject / AGE / S10 / F09 / S12 / F11 / F10 / S11 / F12
MATH / 16 and under / 2 / 12 / 1 / 4 / 6 / 1
MATH / 19-24 / 912 / 925 / 793 / 785 / 902 / 889 / 851
MATH / 25-29 / 287 / 250 / 198 / 187 / 183 / 253 / 193
MATH / 30-34 / 160 / 140 / 130 / 128 / 134 / 152 / 111
MATH / 35-54 / 263 / 206 / 191 / 176 / 193 / 206 / 160
MATH / 65 & Above / 4 / 2 / 5 / 1 / 3 / 4 / 1
MATH / 16-18 / 44 / 281 / 37 / 220 / 224 / 43 / 159
MATH / 55-64 / 33 / 26 / 19 / 13 / 28 / 14 / 18
MATH Total / 1705 / 1842 / 1374 / 1514 / 1673 / 1561 / 1494
Headcount by Department by gender
Campus Descr Long / College of Alameda
2010 / 2012 / 2011 / 2013
Headcount / Headcount / Headcount / Headcount
Subject / Gender / S10 / F09 / S12 / F11 / F10 / S11 / F12
MATH / F / 899 / 985 / 713 / 798 / 876 / 802 / 780
MATH / M / 741 / 806 / 608 / 655 / 735 / 702 / 662
MATH / X / 65 / 51 / 53 / 61 / 62 / 57 / 52
MATH Total / 1705 / 1842 / 1374 / 1514 / 1673 / 1561 / 1494
Headcount by Department by ethnicty
Campus Descr Long / College of Alameda
2010 / 2012 / 2011 / 2013
Headcount / Headcount / Headcount / Headcount
Subject / Ethnic Group Desc / S10 / F09 / S12 / F11 / F10 / S11 / F12
MATH / American Indian/Alaskan Native / 13 / 4 / 3 / 5 / 5 / 2
MATH / Asian / 367 / 465 / 353 / 367 / 419 / 383 / 379
MATH / Black/African American / 489 / 437 / 357 / 400 / 408 / 395 / 376
MATH / Filipino / 61 / 79 / 45 / 63 / 69 / 75 / 63
MATH / Hispanic / 211 / 188 / 181 / 209 / 221 / 202 / 217
MATH / Multiple / 40 / 38 / 112 / 96 / 86 / 91 / 145
MATH / Other Non white / 26 / 31 / 12 / 10 / 22 / 19 / 13
MATH / Pacific Islander / 5 / 12 / 6 / 11 / 10 / 18 / 6
MATH / Unknown/Non Respondent / 301 / 382 / 137 / 185 / 232 / 201 / 95
MATH / White Non Hispanic / 192 / 206 / 171 / 170 / 201 / 172 / 198
MATH Total / 1705 / 1842 / 1374 / 1514 / 1673 / 1561 / 1494

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3. Curriculum:

·  Is the curriculum current and effective? Have course outlines been updated within the last three years? If not, what plans are in place to remedy this?

All course outlines were updated in 08-09 to include Student Learning Outcomes. Distance Education Addendums were added to the course outlines for Math 50, Math 2, Math 3A and Math 3B in Fall 2009.

In Fall 2010, COA will made minor updates to all course outlines in the math department. No critical updates were made (i.e. no changes to the first page). Minor updates included updating textbook information for the courses and updates to the ways we offer homework assignments.

The College of Alameda promotes that it offers an AS degree in Mathematics. We have seen the number of degrees awarded in this discipline decline by 50% in the last three years. COA needs to offer the full math program if we advertise that we have it. In particular, we need to offer differential equations (Math 3F at least once over a 2-year period (average time to achieve 2-year AS math degree). Offering the Calculus sequence also helps support our Physics program.

·  Has your department conducted a curriculum review of course outlines? If not, what are the plans to remedy this?

The Math Department completed a curriculum review in the year 2009. These updates are not curricunet due to changes in the staffing of the curriculum committee. The new Math department chair will meet with the curriculum committee to address this issue.

·  What are the department’s plans for curriculum improvement (i.e., courses to be developed, updated, enhanced, or deactivated)? Have prerequisites, co-requisites, and advisories been validated? Is the date of validation on the course outline?

The math department may consider merging Geometry with Trigonometry and making the Trigonometry class a 4- or 5-unit course. The department may also explore and develop a full-time one-semester math program that includes the short-term Math 202/Math 50 series (6 units) and a Math 1 or Math 2 Pre-calculus class (5 units), and a 1-unit math workshop class that helps students with these three math courses (would need to be developed).”

One of the improvements in our curriculum since the last Program Review is that we now have a robust geometry course, taken by a large number of students. The geometry course now counts toward the AA degree. However we still have many students who are inadequately prepared in geometry when they come into Trigonometry. For this reason we are still looking at the possibility of merging Geometry with Trigonometry and making the Trigonometry class a 4 or 5 unit course. Besides offering them more geometry background for trig, this will help them transfer in a shorter amount of time.

·  What steps has the department taken to incorporate student learning outcomes in the curriculum? Are outcomes set for each course? If not, which courses do not have outcomes?

We include student learning outcomes on our course syllabi.

We want to expand the use of the Pearson My Lab and Mastering software in the teaching of courses because the system offers substantial diagnostic information for evaluating student performance, equal or superior in value to the Scantron pre-tests we are currently using. The department wants to explore aligning the Pearson My Lab and Mastering data with the Student Learning outcomes for each math course that uses the system.

Spring 2012, we evaluated all student learning outcomes for Math 201 and Math 203. We developed SLO questions to be incorporated into the final exam..

·  Describe the efforts to develop outcomes at the program level. In which ways do these outcomes align with the institutional outcomes?

The department has standardized four main student learning outcomes “categories” for all courses it offers in the department: Manipulate expressions, solve equations, problem solve, and graphing. Each course has the same four categories, but different SLO statements that incorporate the content and level of the course. (These four main areas coincide with the four main outcomes the state uses to code Basic Skills math courses).

The math department wants to use the same four categories in its program level outcomes but has not yet formalized the Program Level Outcome (PLO) statements. It may choose to add one or more program level outcomes that address critical thinking and application of mathematics in the world (ie may or may not chose to expand on problem solving outcome to be more than one outcome at the program level.)

The department has already aligned the four main categories with the institutional learning outcomes.

·  Recommendations and priorities.

We believe placing students in their appropriate level math courses is the most effective way to improve success and retention rates in all math classes. It is the best way to get the most accurate enrollment patterns as well. We understand that students have a desire/need to accelerate their math education and we will make efforts to offer fast-track solutions that include all courses in our math sequence.

However, we strongly urge Counselors to advise students to follow the math sequence and to avoid skipping prerequisite courses at all stages of their math education, especially Math 203 for Math 13, Math 202 for Math 50, or Math 50 for Math 2.

We recommend that faculty members receive release time to explore “fast-tracking” our math program at the Geometry-Trigonometry-Pre Calculus level.

Because our department represents 7% of the college sections and offers 23 distinct courses within the discipline, we recommend that a faculty member within the department receive release time to coordinate the evaluation of student learning and program level outcomes for the department and enter the results into task stream.

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4. Instruction:

·  Describe effective and innovative strategies used by faculty to involve students in the learning process. How has new technology been used by the department to improve student learning?

Several faculty members use the Pearson My Lab and Mastering online course management software to teach their courses. Many use it to enhance their lecture-based courses. The online system offers several extra resources that a traditional lecture class does not and cannot offer, such as online test prep videos, an example for every single homework assignment assigned to the student, and an Online Study Plan test that identifies the areas of math the student should work on to improve their understanding.

Several faculty members send their students to the Math Lab to complete assignments or to receive tutoring as a small percentage of their course grade. This promotes the services of the Math Lab and LRC. It also promotes communication and sense of community among the math faculty.

Several faculty members meet informally to exchange teaching ideas, particularly ideas for the basic skills classroom. The addition of Basic Skills Learning Communities in the last few years has proven to improve communication across the disciplines as well between instruction and Student Services. We plan to continue to participate in the Learning Community Programs at COA.

The Math Department created a web site that promotes the entire Math Program of classes and helps students determine what courses to take next in their studies.

·  How does the department maintain the integrity and consistency of academic standards within the discipline?

For our core Algebra and Basic Skills series the Math Department uses a standard textbook (Angel or Aufmann).

Our online math courses use the same online course management system, Pearson My Lab and Mastering.

We instruct all faculty to include SLOs in all their syllabi, to provide students with a calendar of topics presented in their courses, and to cover all topics included on the course outline. The Math department needs to adopt policies about text books and testing (specifically SLOs). In many classes exit skills as documented in the CORs are not being achieved because faculty are not maintaining standards. This violates our CORs and damages the integrity of the course and our Math program. A solution is for the Math department to develop and give common final exams.

·  Discuss the enrollment trends of your department. What is the student demand for specific courses? How do you know? What do you think are the salient trends affecting enrollments?