Quality online mathematics
Hello,
I am just starting out teaching mathematics online, but have been teaching mathematics at the university level for almost 5 years. I have been thinking about how to deliver a quality mathematics course online.
Most of my experience has been that homework/assessments have been delivered via a platform like WebAssign/MyMathLab while content is delivered via something like Blackboard either using university supplied lectures or the videos on Kahn Academy.
I think math is uniquely posed among the sciences for distance education because it doesn't need special equipment or labs. In fact it can be effectively taught using the above items and a 30 dollar graphics tablet.
My experience so far is that the above is an effective translation of the classroom setting- lectures and homework. However, most of what I've had to do online is "clean up" consisting of giving access to students who went beyond their due date because of personal problems.
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience really delivering a quality course where the students walked a way with a strong understanding of mathematical principles?
Brian Stout
Hello Brian,
I've been teaching math online for 8 years now; prior to that I've taught from the secondary school through graduate school levels, including a stint of teaching algebra on TV. Overall, online is the most challenging environment I've run across. MML is a great help in providing assessments that are quick and provide immediate feedback; I've used WebAssign for that same purpose and in fact, I prefer it to MML.
Part of being a good online instructor is having a good deal of experience in teaching the course in a traditional setting. You have to be able to anticipate problems that students will have with the content and try to be proactive in teaching them to avoid these difficulties. I tend to post a lot in the way of announcements with additional problems, examples worked out in detail and more explanation of content. Many students ignore these; however the ones that don't are helped by them. Also, after finishing a live session I always post an announcement or send an email with the topics that were discussed in order to motivate students to go back and review the saved version.
Hi Brian,
I've been teaching online nearly as long as I've been teaching in the face to face environment and noticed that it is difficult to compare the two populations of students because the student readiness tends to vary widely in my experience. However, I have seen success stories in some of my online math students. The MyMathLab is a great tool in providing a high volume of immediate feedback that would be difficult for an instructor to provide when outnumbered by students.
The majority of my online students who join my courses without a strong understanding of the basic pre-requisites yet succeed take advantage of a combination of video resources, tutoring and live lectures, email interaction and engage in extra practice in the MML, beyond the required assignments. The interpersonal interactions in the tutoring and live components of the course seem to be essential to the greatest improvements I've seen among students, but the asychronous resources are certainly valuable tools.
In my face to face classes, I've implemented video homework as a part of their assigned reading and offer videos that show the upcoming lessons as well. I try to coach the students towards thinking critically about their learning and arriving in class with questions, analysis and using class time for taking the next step in learning a topic rather than seeing it for the first time.
Most of the responses I receive to video materials are positive. A few students, usually exasperated and venting that no examples, reading, MML or videos are helping them, complain.
Brian and Class,
Have you found any tactics for working with students who complain about video materials?
Troy,
It is so good to get feedback from the students as to what works and what does not work.
Shelly Crider
That's an excellent idea. I teach an online pharmacy math course, and I know that students will have problems with one area during a certain week. I've created a few Word documents to supplement what the student will need to know for that week. I feel that this strategy has been working based on the positive feedback I receive from students for that week.
Brian,
I have used MyMathLab as well. I love it actually. I found it fairly easy to grasp the concepts. You might want to think about creating what you feel are the "muddiest" points of each chapter and send those notes/ppt/youtube links to your students.
Shelly Crider
