Assignment 2, Topic Choice

My topic choice for my Master's thesis is the impact of online tools for instruction and assessment toward learning remedial mathematics at the community college level.

At Crafton Hills Community College, the math department uses the Hawkes Learning system - an online system used in conjunction with class instruction that offers instruction, practice and demonstrating mastery within a topic. Within basic math and pre-algebra, instructors use the 'certify' feature of the program in lieu of homework, and are able to electronically track student progress, amount of time spent by students in the program and number of standards mastered.

This topic is relevant for several reasons. First, it can demonstrate the role of technology to provide intervention in student learning that is always available outside of the classroom. Second, students are able to obtain instant feedback on their answers to continually refine their understanding. Third, teachers are able to collect hard data to determine time and effort on the part of students to determine if they are making the effort to learn in the class - something far more difficult to do with large piles of homework assignments.

To complete the study, I will have to obtain research on similar programs in different phases of development to determine what features of the program are effective and which can be improved. Additionally, I will need permission from the department and instructors to the data and grades of their students that they accumulate during the semester of study. Third, I will need access to students and be able to survey them about the features of the program they believe to be effective or ineffective to determine correlates between the online program, student achievement and classroom instruction.