Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Little, M. D. (2016). Delivery of remedial community college mathematics instruction in an emporium learning environment: Predicting academic success, persistence, retention, and completion. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC.
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to determine the impact of an accelerated emporium developmental math course on community college students’ course completion, persistence, retention, and academic success.
- The study used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of students who enrolled in an accelerated emporium developmental math course with those who enrolled in a traditional developmental math course.
- The study did not find any statistically significant effects of the emporium delivery format on course completion, course persistence, retention, or student success.
- The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is moderate because it was based on a well-implemented nonexperimental design. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the accelerated emporium math course and not to other factors.
Intervention Examined
The Accelerated Emporium Developmental Math Course
Features of the Intervention
An urban community college in North Carolina redesigned three existing developmental math courses in response to challenges with student success in the college’s developmental math program. The college’s effort also coincided with a statewide initiative to increase the number of students successfully completing developmental education courses and enrolling in college-level courses. The three developmental math courses were redesigned into thirteen self-paced modules that included an accelerated emporium math course format. Developed by the National Center for Academic Transformation, the accelerated emporium math course format used interactive computer-assisted instruction to deliver content using videos, audio clips, tutorials, practice problems, graphic displays, quizzes, and tests. Students progressed through the modules after demonstrating mastery through post-tests. Students could access course material at any time and were required to dedicate a minimum of five hours a week, with at least three of the hours being in the lab. Instructors and facilitators provided one-on-one instruction in the lab.
Features of the Study
The study used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of students who self-enrolled into emporium delivery developmental math courses to students who self-enrolled into traditional delivery developmental math courses. A sample of 376 students was included; 188 students who completed an emporium format math course and 188 students who completed a traditional math course in the spring of 2011. The author matched participants in the two student groups on demographic and academic characteristics. Using archival student records from the college, the author conducted statistical models to examine group differences in course completion (developmental math and college-level math), developmental course persistence, retention, and student success (measured as college transfer, program completion, or continued enrollment).
Findings
Education and skills gain
- The study found no significant differences in course completion, developmental course persistence, retention, or student success between students who completed the emporium developmental math courses and students who completed a traditional developmental math course.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The author compared the outcomes of participants who self-selected into two developmental math course delivery formats, traditional and emporium. Although the author controlled for baseline characteristics, it’s possible that students could differ in observable and unobservable ways and the existing differences could bias impact estimates. However, the author controlled for baseline characteristics.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is moderate because it was based on a well-implemented nonexperimental design. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the accelerated emporium course format and not to other factors. However, the study did not find statistically significant effects.