How One Instructor Can Teach a Large-Scale, Mastery-Based College Algebra Course Online

ABSTRACT

Mastery-based testing is an assessment scheme that encourages students to learn from their mistakes and develop an understanding of material before moving on. For an entry-level course with large enrollment like College Algebra, this could allow some students to move at an appropriate pace for themselves. This paper outlines the changes made to make College Algebra at the University of Florida an asynchronous mastery-based course for the 500+ students who take the course per year and concludes with a series of lessons learned from the endeavor.

KEYWORDS:

• Mastery-based testing
• asynchronous
• automated feedback

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Dr. Russell Jeter for his pivotal contributions to creating the automated assessment generation used in this course. I would not have been able to design and implement this large-scale College Algebra course if it was not for his generous assistance both academically and emotionally.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Alternative math courses were available for students who did not need to take Calculus.

2 For example, the vertex form of quadratics may be abstracted into a general form for translations of rational, radical, logarithmic, and exponential functions

3 A detailed breakdown of how a student's grade is determined is provided in the Appendix.

4 Automatic in that items are generated with little to no human interaction.

5 5 were provided from Spring 2018 through Fall 2019.

6 5 were provided from Spring 2018 through Fall 2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Darryl Chamberlain

Darryl Chamberlain Jr. earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Statistics at Georgia State University in 2017 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Worldwide. He is generally interested in how college students develop their mathematical understanding and has worked on projects in: automated assessment, asynchronous course discussions, proof comprehension, prospective teacher knowledge, flipped calculus, introductory statistics, and digital literacy.