Student Performance
Poor student performance is the key factor that inspired this group of faculty to consider reforming College Algebra. Seventy percent of students across all course sections of Math 1301 failed. UHD's large population of under-prepared students probably played a role in the dismal performance recorded before reform. A faculty member reflects on the outcomes when traditional teaching methods were used:

We were unhappy with the results we were getting. The failure rates were very high - some 24% passing rate (C or better passed). Actually we tallied this up about a year [before] we looked at our courses, specifically college algebra, and before we started incorporating technology. We looked at our sections to see what we had been doing. And it wasn't just one instructor or one book or any one characteristic that was having the high failure rates; it was uniform across the department. No matter who was looked at, it was the same failure rate. (Linda Becerra, Faculty)

Students discouraged by failure dropped the course or withdrew from the University, so retention rates were low. In addition, the students who remained did not learn the fundamental concepts they needed in order to succeed in more advanced courses. This provided faculty with a strong incentive to come up with a plan that would help students retain knowledge of algebra concepts beyond their final exam. A faculty member explains:

The retention problem ties into the concepts that they didn't quite get. For example, the concept of a function: they should learn that in college algebra, and they're supposed to be knowledgeable after they go from college algebra to calculus. We found out that a lot of students in calculus had no idea at all what a function is. They were not getting the concepts that were being taught. We were trying to use this technology somehow to either reinforce concepts or introduce them in such a way that they will stick in their minds. That's another reason why we use technology. (Ongard Sirisaengtaksin, Faculty)

Student Preparation
If student performance is the quintessential challenge that motivated reform in this college algebra course, then student preparation is right behind. In many instances, both faculty and administrators hail the nontraditional aspects of their student population as a strength. However, while it is clear that the University takes pride in serving this population niche, it also faces some daunting challenges in terms of the preparation and traditions of its incoming students. When asked why he thought students were failing so miserably, one algebra instructor answered:

That's the $64 question. Everything that we say here is pure speculation. Many of our students didn't have a high level of academic success in the past. This is the reason that you hear people, not just us, but other people give. They weren't successful; they had bad experiences with math in the past or hadn't been successful in math in the past, or hadn't enjoyed it. But they might have gone through an entire high school algebra sequence or close to the whole high school algebra sequence, so they had some algebra skills. They'd seen this stuff before, but hadn't been successful with it. And here we are in college, and they're getting it all-they're going through the whole experience all over again, the same experience that they were unhappy with in high school. So it was like, dŽjˆ vu all over again. The same material taught in exactly the same way but just at a faster pace. (Bill Waller, Faculty)

At many institutions, students with a poor academic background are discounted or not admitted at all. However, for the UHD algebra faculty reformers, these students represent a challenge, one of significant proportion, that they are eager to face. One can even decipher a sense of pride in the value-added education provided to students. These faculty members see their role as instrumental in making up for missing knowledge, as well as imparting new knowledge to their students. UHD's hallmark is to provide opportunities for success, as many faculty pointed out to us. Here is how one faculty member summed it up:

We're very proud of our graduates. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to make sure that they're able to absorb the knowledge. One of the reasons is that some of our students do not have the benefit of coming from the top high schools, so their background is not particularly strong. One of our goals is to make sure that they are able to succeed, and in order to do that, we've got to provide the appropriate environment, which means that we have to get them to fill in those gaps in their education so that they are able to compete. (George Pincus)

Traditional Methods Weren't Working
Several Math Department faculty members, including some who don't teach algebra, felt that traditional methods of teaching mathematics were not effective with students, particularly students who did not grow up in an environment with a college tradition. They felt that it was imperative to link mathematical content to students' everyday lives. Material and its relevance, that is, making course content useful in students' eyes, became a theme that we heard frequently in investigating this case. Use of pen and paper, or blackboard and chalk, added to students' impressions that course content was obsolete and passŽ. A faculty member reflects emotionally on that issue:

They didn't see the content as relevant; even after our reform, they still don't see it as very relevant. I get this comment constantly: "I don't see this is as very relevant to my career." It's not fun for them, so we have all the ingredients of a disaster. In the past, the course was not technology oriented, so to them that just emphasized that it was irrelevant. It was not taught in a very modern way-again, not connecting to their lives. The course didn't make much of an attempt at all to connect with their lives. It was just really in a rut, a course in a rut if there ever was one. (Bill Waller, Faculty)

It was customary for students to consider an algebra course a miserable experience they had to go through in order to obtain a degree, and one that they hoped they would never have to repeat. Like the students who performed poorly in these traditional courses, the faculty dreaded these teaching assignments:

Well, we as instructors were unhappy, too, with the type of course that it was. For many students it was a terminal course, so they were leaving their last math course with a very poor experience, and little material that could be applied to their everyday lives. They had questionable skills in terms of being able to solve theoretical problems, which they needed if they were going to continue with their mathematics sequence of courses. On the other hand, if they were never going to see math again, they weren't ever going to have to recall those skills. So we just didn't view the course as being very valuable, whether they were going on or terminating at that point, and both the instructors and the students seemed to be unhappy with the course. (Linda Becerra, Faculty)

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1. Wilson, B. G. (1995). "Metaphors for instruction: Why we talk about learning environments. Educational Technology", 35 (5), 25-30, available at http://www.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/metaphor.html.