CLEARWATER - A new online math tutoring program is exceeding enrollment
expectations to such an extent in its first few weeks that professors at
St. Petersburg College want to create more in time for the new school
year this fall.
The free "Get Ready For College" math course has about 850 students from
across Florida enrolled; many are hoping to avoid remedial classes at
St. Petersburg College next year. The massive open online course, or
MOOC, lets students work through online math lessons developed by SPC
teachers at their own pace from anywhere in the world and grades
practice tests to track their progress.
The program's popularity - hundreds signed up the first day - has
encouraged the school to add reading and writing courses in the fall,
said Jesse Coraggio, the college's associate vice president of
institutional effectiveness, research and grants. College officials also
are waiting to hear if they will receive a $300,000 grant from the
Florida Department of Education that would help them create more courses
in a shorter period of time. Word could come as soon as this week.
The online programs are aimed at students who have been away from school
for a while and recent high school graduates who need to sharpen their
math skills before starting college.
"Someone who graduated from high school three or four years ago may have
been good at algebra at one point, but over time you loose those skills
because you don't use them," Coraggio said. "This is an ideal solution
for that kind of student coming back to school, because it gives them an
opportunity to refresh their competencies before they have to take
required placement tests to enroll in college.
"Likely, they'll do much better so they don't have to do remedial courses, they can go right into college-level coursework."
More than half of first-time college students at SPC are placed in
remedial courses, and most struggle in math, Coraggio said. Remedial
classes not only slow down graduation and rack up bigger tuition bills
but also lower self esteem, which leads to more dropouts, he said. Once a
student completes the Get Ready For College course with a 70 percent or
higher on the final test, the student receives a certificate allowing
him to retake the placement test and have another shot at getting into a
college-level math class.
Because high school students also take the placement test in
dual-enrollment classes, Coraggio is hoping to get more Pinellas County
high school students involved and is developing a separate registration
page for high schoolers to get more information about where they come
from and what help they need. A handful is already taking the math
class, he said. In fact, his daughter Sydney, a rising 10th-grader at
St. Petersburg Collegiate High School, and her friends worked through
practice runs of the program in its developmental stage before it
launched in May.
"They actually enjoyed it, I think," Coraggio said. "They liked the format and that it didn't take too long to complete."
Pinellas County Schools is working with SPC to further develop the
program for high school students, said Judith Vigue, the school
district's director of advanced studies and academic excellence.
Information about the MOOC will be provided to administrators,
counselors and students this fall, so they can use it to prepare
students for college readiness tests or use it for remedial work, she
said.
A number of students enrolled in the math course are other college math
professors looking to replicate the MOOC at their own schools, such as
Valencia College in Orlando and Hillsborough Community College, Coraggio
said. SPC is the first state college out of the 27 in Florida to offer a
MOOC, he said.
Though schools such as Harvard University and the University of Florida
have jumped on MOOC's as they've emerged over the last few years, most
course offerings are on complex topics such as artificial intelligence
and engineering. SPC's math course could be beneficial to anyone that
needs a "refresher," Coraggio said.
When students first sign into the course, which usually takes a few
weeks to complete, they're greeted with a video of communications
professor Tony Smith, who assures them that they'll soon get the
"confidence boost" they need for success. Students work through six
modules covering everything from fractions and conversions to graphing,
earning completion badges when they score a 90 percent or higher on the
section's practice test. If they get stuck on a particular problem,
guided instructional videos, notes and practice exercises help students
work through it.
Right now, the whole project involves just 10 people, who each were paid
about $1,000 for their efforts, but the demand is huge. At the
University of Florida, which became the state's first university to
offer MOOC's in March, there are five classes, such as instructor
Wendell Porter's semester-long Global Sustainable Energy course, which
at one point enrolled 22,000 students from as far away as Norway and
Mozambique. Though students don't receive credit for the coursework, and
most of the "grades" are just based on completion, the material is the
same Porter presents to paying students, he said. It takes a lot of time
and energy, but as legislators push for more online learning, Porter
expects that the free courses will only grow over the next few years.
"In just one class, I'm teaching more students then I've ever taught in a
classroom put together," said Porter, 57. "It's incredibly
nerve-racking, but it's almost addictive to talk with them and read
their posts.
"There are certainly benefits to staying in a classroom and building
those face-to-face relationships, but the opportunities we have now with
today's technologies are incredible. This is the future, and I don't
want to be left behind."
Of course, the true impact of SPC's math program won't be felt until
graduation day, when he's hoping to shake a lot more hands, Coraggio
said.
adawson@tampatrib.com
(727) 215-9851
http://tbo.com/pinellas-county/st-pete-college-delving-into-online-college-readiness-courses-20130714/
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