New York College Learning Skills Association

RTDE Issue Contents

Research and Teaching
in Developmental Education

Volume 22, Issue 2, Spring 2006

Study of the Efficacy of Computer-Mediated Developmental Math Instruction for
Traditional Community College Students
By Sven Trenholm

Abstract

According to the Fall 2000 National Center for Education Statistics report on Remedial Education at Degree-Granting Post secondary Institutions, 97% of public 2 year colleges offered remedial courses in mathematics. Of these institutions, 35% of entering freshman enrolled in a remedial mathematics course. In states, such as New York, leading developmental educators in the community college system estimate that 60-70% of freshman test into remedial mathematics and only 40-50% of these students pass on their first attempt.
The driving force of this study is the contention that these numbers are unacceptably high and demand that educational power brokers and developmental educators look for ways to improve instruction and effectively increase the success rate.
With the current traditional community college developmental math student population, compounding and perhaps a major contributor to these statistics, is the inefficiency of the didactic lecture. In exploring alternate instructional modalities, of interest, is the fact that the current generation of traditional college freshman largely represents the so cio-cultural grouping known as the millennial generation. Millennial, as they have come to be termed, have been characterized as heavy technology users.
To that end, the purpose of this causal-comparative quasi-experimental study is to examine how current and advancing computer technology can be utilized to leverage the millennial generation's propensity to utilize technology to effectively increase learning success and retention in the classroom. This article is the first part of this study comprising the problem background and a literature review.