CORPS MATH: �FLEXIBLE FIRST SEMESTER MATH DELIVERY

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Erin Kox

Fanshawe College

GENERAL ARTS AND SCIENCE AT FANSHAWE COLLEGE

• One year certificate (10 courses)
• Two year diploma (20 courses)

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• Courses are online or blended
• Online: 3 hours per week asynchronous
• Blended: 2 hour block in-person + 1 hour online asynchronous

GENERAL ARTS AND SCIENCE AT FANSHAWE COLLEGE

Demographics

• Mixture of mature students, international students and recent high school grads
• Students are generally upgrading in order to apply to another college or university program (usually health related)
• Agreements are in place across the college and with different universities

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GENERAL ARTS AND SCIENCE AT FANSHAWE COLLEGE

Math Courses Math Pathways

FANSHAWE COLLEGE

Math Department is decentralized

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• There is a lot of overlap between math courses offered through the different programs
• There is a committee that meets monthly (Math Coordinating Committee) to discuss Math initiatives and issues

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Post pandemic problem posed to MCC: How will we remediate and retain the students who will inevitably fail their first year math courses?

RESEARCH

Comparing course outlines of all math courses across the college:

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How many math courses existed in the last five years?

91

How many math courses did we run in the last year?

61

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• 14 courses (across 18 programs) equated to at least 80% of 3068/3069
• Access Studies (2)
• Technology (6)
• Business (4)
• Aviation (1)
• Trades (4)
• Public Safety (1)

CORE CONCEPTS

Differences in the order they are taught!

REMIX

1

2

3

5

4

18

12

10

6

17

7

8

9

11

13

16

14

15

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PROPOSED SOLUTION

Offer a condensed course combining 3068 and 3069 in the summer for students to rejoin their program in the fall

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Concerns:

1. Enrollment
2. Reintegration
3. High School Changes

1. ENROLLMENT

• Approval
• The other programs have to accept this course as an equivalency for their students to rejoin their program

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• Advertising
• Students need to know about the course

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• Minimum class size
• Course cannot run with less than 12-15 students

2. REINTEGRATION

3. HIGH SCHOOL CHANGES

Taken from the TVDSB website

REVISED SOLUTION

Old Math Courses New Math Courses

REVISED SOLUTION

Old Math Pathways New Math Pathways

REVISED SOLUTION - STRENGTHS

• Cleaner pathways
• Equivalencies can easily be completed in 1-2 semesters

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• More pathway options

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• Students should be better prepared
• Higher level math courses are offered

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• Courses will run every semester with General Arts students, so other students can join at any point in their program
• They are not limited to summer enrollment

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REVISED SOLUTION - WEAKNESSES

Textbook!

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• There is no textbook that covers all of this content, and in an order that is suitable

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• Current textbook would now only cover one course for $120+
• Each of the other courses would require an additional $50 minimum

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• New textbook needed for MCT 4C content

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• Push to OER’s and minimizing the cost to students

EXPLORING OUR OPTIONS

• Currently using Vretta, co-authored Foundations of Mathematics textbook
• Agreement with OpenStax for higher level courses (Advanced Functions and Calculus)

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• Visited and engaged with numerous publishers
• Modularized options
• Free texts, but homework problems were typically extra cost
• A lot of interactive options with videos

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• Did not want to create new content – it already exists!
• Needed algorithmic homework options for multi-section courses

NEW REMIXER TEXTBOOK OPTION WITH VRETTA

• Customizable e-textbook using any content from their existing resources, any resources we wanted to add, as well as OpenStax

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• Chapters and sections are modularized so they can be reordered according to the specific course

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• Lots of existing algorithmic testbank �questions, and additional resources

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• Lower cost: $50 per semester
• ANY two semester pathway will cost $100

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CONTINUED

• Students have the option to print the textbook themselves if they would still like a hard copy version
• Easy to make changes/corrections to the content
• No new content needed
• Everything exists for my four courses (and more!)
• Everyone seems to teach in a slightly different order
• (percent first, or ratio and proportion first?)
• Still includes additional resources, and testbank
• You can add your own resources into the textbook or pull from other textbooks
• Can include examples from a variety of sources (trades, health, business…etc)

LOOKING FORWARD…

• Hi-flex delivery
• Testing options!!!
• Expanding test banks
• Updating admission requirements (Excel)
• Cleaning up redundancies between departments at the college
• Looking for more course options to offer our students (12U Data Management)

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