Changes to foundational math courses

In the past few years, the Department of Mathematics has implemented a number of changes in the mathematics courses available to incoming students. The primary goals for these changes are
  1. To promote the ability for students to transfer math courses from other universities and to CODO within Purdue.
  2. To provide an alternative (Quantitative Reasoning) to the standard algebra-trigonometry-calculus sequence.
  3. To improve placement into first-year mathematics courses.
  4. To offer a high-quality, online homework system at a low cost to students and simultaneously to improve our ability to offer online courses.
Math Pathways:

Just a few years ago, Purdue had separate calculus courses designed for each of technology majors, agriculture majors, biology and several other majors, and other science and engineering majors. Many people in the Department of Mathematics and the upper administration worked to streamline these offerings to essentially two different calculus tracks (or pathways): one pathway for science and engineering majors (with two first-semester courses - MA 16100 and MA 16500 - that differ primarily in the number of recitation hours), and another pathway for other students who need calculus - MA 16010. This has made it much easier for students to carry credits for mathematics courses with them when they change majors within Purdue and for students to transfer mathematics credit into Purdue.

During the same time, many people in higher education, including several at Purdue, realized that many students would be better served by an alternative to a sequence of courses designed to lead to calculus. The Indiana Commission on Higher Education proposed that Indiana public colleges and universities be encouraged to offer a Quantitative Reasoning course as an alternative. This is a course that introduces many of the concepts of algebra in the context of problems of relevance and utility to students from all majors. Here are a few sample questions from the book for this course:

  1. In his May 17, 2010 op-ed column in The New York Times Bob Herbert noted that the dropout rate for American high school students was one every 29 seconds. Is this number reasonable?
  2. The inside back cover of the September/October 2008 issue of BARk magazine carried an ad for pet insurance asserting that every ten seconds a pet owner faced a $1,000 vet bill. Is this claim reasonable?
  3. Imagine a small social network - perhaps Facebook when it was just starting out - with 100 people. One of them is friends with the other 99, but none of those 99 is a friend of any of the others.
  4. (a) What is the average number of friends in this network? (b) Explain why the statement "your friends have more friends than you do" is true for almost everybody in this network.
Math Placement:

Several years ago, the Department of Mathematics started using ALEKS placements tests to improve our ability to determine the correct math course for incoming students. Until this past year, this test was taken by all incoming students. For students who needed a refresher, it included review modules to allow students to brush up on selected topics in order to place into the correct math course. However, the requirement that all students take this placement test was an unnecessary burden for students whose SAT or ACT scores demonstrated that they were well-prepared for the first math course for their major. As a result, the Mathematics Department worked with the Office of Admissions and the Academic Advisors to devise placement criteria that can substitute for the ALEKS assessment. With these new criteria, many incoming students will place into the correct math course without needing to take ALEKS. This information will be distributed to incoming students from the start, with guidance by the academic advisors to help them determine which math course is appropriate for their major and whether or not they need to take ALEKS.

Online homework and online courses:

Over the past few two years, several first-year courses in mathematics have been revamped to use the LON-CAPA learning platform. This platform integrates an online homework system with videos and text specific to each lesson in a course. With a real team effort from several dedicated Continuing Lecturers in Mathematics, several people from ITaP, and a number of graduate and undergraduate TAs, four 100-level courses have been reconfigured to use this new platform. While the first couple of semesters using the new system exposed some areas for improvement, both in the courses we created and in the learning platform itself, these courses are now running very well in the new format. The new system replaces both a standard textbook and an external online homework system, which has resulted in substantial savings to the students taking these courses. This platform also makes it easier to offer these courses online, which has been particularly valuable as we increase our summer offerings: many students appreciate the ability to satisfy a math requirement from home during their first summer after college.