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Lord Fairfax Community College Academic Center for Excellence Math Tutoring Videos

Tara Cassidy, Alicia Grasso, Katie Horst  

February 8, 2013

1.  Background

LFCC is located in Warrenton, Virginia and currently serves over 7,600 credit-seeking students enrolled in seventy-five associate degree and certificate programs, and more than 10,450 students who participate in professional development courses. New in 2013, LFCC's Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) offers an array of academic support services to all current students, including but not limited to free math tutoring for all levels of mathematics covered in the LFCC curriculum.

Incoming LFCC students who have not tested out of college math requirements or who have not already earned an advanced degree are generally required to take the math placement test.  A score report with placement information is provided immediately after a student completes the test. This report recommends the specific math course the student should enroll in based on their test score. Based on the placement test, a student's score puts them on one of three potential paths:

• Placed into college-level math course such as Math 151, Mathematics for the Liberal Arts or Math 163, Precalculus.
• Placed into one of nine possible 1-credit Math Essentials developmental math courses (see descriptions from LFCC catalog on the last page) to prepare for success in a college-level math course. The 1-credit modules generally last for four weeks and are scheduled to run sequentially throughout the regular semester. It is possible for a student to complete up to three modules in the same semester. Financial aid can be used for developmental math courses; however, developmental math credits do not count toward a degree.
• Placed into ABE. (Students whose placement tests scores do not qualify them to be placed at least in module 1 are offered Adult Basic Skills training in order to gain basic proficiency.)  

2. Needs Analysis  

All incoming students are required to take the math placement test in order to determine math course placement. An estimated 57% of the LFCC student population doesn't test into college level math and are placed into Math Essentials courses that do not count toward their degree. This percentage may be so high because capable students simply didn't prepare adequately for the placement test. With proper advance coaching and preparation, students could prepare for the math placement test in such a way that the math placement scores would more accurately identify their true level of math ability.

With reliable scores and course placement, only students who truly need developmental math would be selected for targeted Math Essentials support. Students with the ability to succeed in or place out of college level math would be selected out of the developmental group, thus shortening time to degree completion, avoiding unnecessary financial aid investment, and better aligning math instructional time and effort with learning needs. ACE wants to help students score as high as possible on the placement test; or, to at least test out of the first three developmental math units.

3. Learner & Context Analysis - Target Audience

Learning styles
Age
Gender
Experience levels
Attitudes
Prior Experiences

The math center's target audience includes all LFCC students, specifically, adult learners in the following categories: new college student, former LFCC student, incoming transfer student, student attending full-time at another higher education institution, international student, high school student concurrently enrolled in college course(s), veteran, Workforce and Professional Development student seeking targeted career training, or teacher seeking credentialing or re-certification. This population's math ability and information needs will vary.

Typically, students who intend to earn the associate's degree in liberal arts for transfer to a four-year school will need to complete  Math 151, Mathematics for the Liberal Arts 1, and potentially a statistics course, depending on their long-term educational goal. This student would need to test out of or successfully complete modules 1 - 5 in order to enroll in Math 151. Modules 6 - 9 are intended to prepare students for higher level college math such as Math 163, Precalculus.

4. Environmental characteristics

The Math Center is opened Monday through Thursdays from 9am-8pm, and Fridays from 9am-4pm. New in 2013, the math tutor is available for free for all LFCC students and includes all levels of mathematics.  There is an in-person math tutoring schedule posted and students are served on a walk-in basis. The math center also offers links to online math preparation materials on their webpage.










5. Persona descriptions

*Frances	Frances is an A.S. for Transfer student who needs to complete Math 151 for the degree. She placed into Math Essentials MTE 1. She is 18 and her goal is to transfer to James Madison University and study education. Both of these images are clip art btw.
*Charles	Charles is an A.S. in Emergency Medical Services student who was recently laid off. He is 42, has a GED, and is a veteran of the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars. His goal is to become a paramedic.

6. Design & development

Goal:
LFCC students will successfully apply college math concepts without a calculator when they take the math placement test.

Behaviors / content:
Study skills
Register for test
Use of computer, keyboard, and mouse
Completing the timed test
Basic math skills
Math concepts: Proper fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers

7. Content Checking / SME Information:
We obtained placement test and math course information from the LFCC web site, college catalog, and ACE staff members. As the LFCC Math Consultant, Mr. Jeremiah Dyke serves as the subject matter expert in this area.

	Need to Know	Nice to Know
Math Skills	Basic math skills Knowledge of of proper fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers How to apply concepts to solve math problems	How to check your work without a calculator
Study Skills	Where to obtain practice problems How to get help	How to study math

Performance agreement

Math Skills

Objectives - Describe precisely what learners should be able to do to demonstrate achievement in each area of content you plan to develop	Evaluation Tasks - Describe the evaluation task you anticipate for each objective
Understand basic math, including knowledge of of proper fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers.
Apply math concepts to solve problems.	Students will find the correct solution to math exercises that reinforce basic concepts.

Study Skills

Objectives	Evaluation Tasks
Know where to obtain practice problems and solutions
Understand when they need assistance and know how to get help

8. Instructional Module Description

Streaming online instructional video segments that break down the math concepts contained in MTE 1 - 3. The videos will be bundled together and reflect the structure of the Math Essentials courses and presented as a free, navigable LFCC web resource to which ACE can refer students as they prepare for the math placement test.

These segments will feature the LFCC Math Consultant, Mr. Jeremiah Dyke, highlighting his role as a student resource and showing him solving math problems on a tablet. The video segments will include audio of Jeremiah's explanations as he works, allowing students to see and hear his process for solving each problem. Embedded in each instructional segment will be sample questions for students to try and solve. If the students don’t answer correctly, the video will start over.






Course descriptions from LFCC Catalog:

• MTE 1 Operations-Positive Fractions (1 Cr.) Includes operations and problem solving with proper fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers without the use of a calculator. Emphasizes applications and includes U. S. customary units of measure. Credit is not applicable toward graduation.  Prerequisite(s): Qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTE 2 Operations-Positive Dec & Percents (1 Cr.) Includes operations and problem solving with positive decimals and percents. Emphasizes applications and includes U. S. customary and metric units of measure. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Prerequisite(s): MTE 1 or qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week.
• MTE 3 Algebra Basics (1 Cr.) Includes basic operations with algebraic expressions and solving simple algebraic equations using signed numbers with emphasis on applications. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Prerequisite(s): MTE 2 or qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTE 4 First Degree Equations and Inequalities in One Variable (1 Cr.) Includes solving first degree equations and inequalities containing one variable, and using them to solve application problems. Emphasizes applications and problem solving. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Prerequisite(s): MTE 3 or qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTE 5 Linear Equations, Inequalities and Systems of Linear Equations in Two Variable (1 Cr.) Includes finding the equation of a line, graphing linear equations and inequalities in two variables and solving systems of two linear equations. Emphasizes writing and graphing equations using the slope of the line and points on the line, and applications. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Prerequisite(s): MTE 4 or qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTE 6 Exponents, Factoring and Polynomial Equations (1 Cr.) The student will learn to perform operations on exponential expressions and polynomials. Students will also learn techniques to factor polynomials and use these techniques to solve polynomial equations. Emphasis should be on learning all the different factoring methods, and solving application problems using polynomial equations. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTE 7 Rational Expressions and Equations (1 Cr.) Includes simplifying rational algebraic expressions, solving rational algebraic equations and solving applications that use rational algebraic equations. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Prerequisite(s): MTE 6 or qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTE 8 Rational Exponents and Radicals (1 Cr.) Includes simplifying radical expressions, using rational exponents, solving radical equations and solving applications using radical equations. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Prerequisite(s): MTE 7 or qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTE 9 Functions, Quadratic Equations and Parabolas (1 Cr.) Includes an introduction to functions in ordered pair, graph, and equation form. Also introduces quadratic functions, their properties and their graphs. Credit is not applicable toward graduation. Prerequisite(s): MTE 8 or qualifying placement score. Lecture 1 hour per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTH 151 Mathematics for the Liberal Arts I (3 Cr.) Presents topics in sets, logic, numeration systems, geometric systems and elementary computer concepts. Prerequisites: Competency in Math Essentials MTE 1-5 as demonstrated through the placement and diagnostic tests, or by satisfactorily completing the required MTE units or equivalent. Lecture 3 hours per week. Generally offered all semesters.
• MTH 163 Precalculus I (3 Cr.) Presents college algebra, matrices and algebraic, exponential and logarithmic functions. Prerequisites: Competency in Math Essentials MTE 1-9 as demonstrated through the placement and diagnostic tests, or by satisfactorily completing the required MTE units or equivalent. Lecture 3 hours per week. Generally offered all semesters.