Community College of Denver’s Accuplacer Prep Lab & Nroc Lara Urano Accuplacer Test Prep Coordinator Jason Burke Assistant Professor, Developmental Math

Beginning Fall 2013, with the new recommend ations from the Dev Ed Task Force, the Accuplacer Prep Lab will be CCD’s and MSUD’s “soft landing” spot for students whose Accuplacer scores are EA<29 and an AR<39.

What is the Accuplacer Prep Lab? AKA: CCD’s “ Soft Landing ” Opened in the Fall 2012, the Accuplacer Prep Lab offers students an online program, and a computer lab to work in while brushing-up on, and building their math skills.

Tell me more! Students who join the Accuplacer Prep Lab ($60 for the semester) have unlimited access to NROC; math tutors and instructors for one-on-one assistance, and/or group work. In addition to tutoring in the Accuplacer Prep Lab, students are now able to their math questions to the coordinator – and she will respond utilizing Doceri or Educreations. APL also works closely with all developmental instructors, as well as the Accessibility Center, ensuring every student gets the help that he/she needs.

About My Students Fall 2012 Semester 77 participants CCD Students: 67% Metro State: 19% Future Students: 17% Average Accuplacer Scores: Arithmetic: 33 (66 students) Elementary Algebra: 35 (51 students) 19 APL students were in a math class during their membership (MAT )

About My Students Spring 2013 Semester… Thus Far 104 Participants (9 of whom signed up for a second semester) CCD Students: 72% Metro Students: 22% Future-Students: 6% Accuplacer Average Scores: Arithmetic: 36.6 (80 students) Elementary Algebra: 32.2 (65 students) 27 of APL participants are currently in a math class (MAT 045, 060, 090 or 099)

What is NROC? NROC is the National Repository of Online Courses and offers a “digital library of high- quality multi-media resources for secondary, advanced placement©, and higher education.”

More about NROC

NROC Developmental Math Topic areas: arithmetic, beginning algebra, intermediate algebra, including geometry and statistics topics per AMATYC recommendations Instructional elements: At the topic level (124 Topics): warm-up (text) presentation (video, audio, animation, and graphics) worked examples (audio and graphics) problems (interactive text) review (text) text tab (online textbook) At the unit level (18 Units): virtual tutor (interactive video, graphics, text) project (text and graphics) puzzles (game-based, interactive animation, graphics) 370 explicit learning objectives to allow fine-grained assessment.

NROC Unit Organization

What NROC Looks Like The topic home page orients learners to the objective and activities they may use to master the concepts and procedures within the topic. Students may work through the elements in order, jump to the elements assigned by their teacher, or to those elements they have discovered to be the best starting place for their personal learning approach.

Warm-ups provide pre-assessment to test prior knowledge and recommend review.

Presentations offer a media- rich conceptual introduction to the topic with illustrated examples, and real-world applications. Different presenters appear throughout the course to appeal to different students.

Worked examples have been created by Salman Khan of Khan Academy ( Sal walks students through step-by-step examples (one for each objective) pointing out recommended strategies and procedures

Practice problems - symbolic and word - are designed in adaptive sets, and offer students immediate feedback. Problems may be one of nine different types.

Review offers the learner an opportunity to self-test their understanding prior to moving to the next topic.

A Review summary points students to the Topic Text for further review as needed.

Accuplacer Prep Lab students are encouraged to go through the Pre- Assessment portion of NROC that CCD is piloting for NROC.

What else does NROC offer students? NROC also has available online:  An integrated textbook provides comprehensive coverage of topics with additional explanations, manipulatives and examples. These pages may be printed per topic, or as a complete textbook for off-line studying and note-taking.  Tutor simulations offer students directed guidance in problem solving. These simulations allow students to work step-by-step through a problem which requires them to understand and use the math from an entire unit.  Drawing upon research on games and learning, each unit includes a Puzzle which give learners a chance to reinforce math concepts in a fun, no-fault environment.

How much time did students spend? Fall Semester 2012 September 2012 (32 students) October 2012 (48 students) In the lab: 101 hours In the lab: 194 hours Online: 69 hours Online: 122 hours November 2012 (64 students) December 2012 (77 students) In the lab: 203 hours In the lab: 143 hours Online: 120 hours Online: 154 hours Spring Semester 2013 January 2013 (72 students) February 2013 (102 students) In the lab: 98 hours In the lab: 241 hours Online: 109 hours Online: 232 hours

Student Improvements?? At the end of APL’s first semester: 77 registered students (including CCD and MSUD students). Six of the participants retook the math portion of the Accuplacer at the end of the semester and their average increase in score was 21 points. Three students took the Accuplacer for the first time and two students scored in the 40s on the arithmetic section, and the other student who had originally scored a 42 in arithmetic, scored a 90 in elementary algebra after working on NROC and in the APL.

CCD has embedded NROC into D2L. Students do not have to register separately, but log into their D2L shell and get access to the content directly. NROC quizzes are accessible within D2L and can be linked directly to the grade book.

NROC Developmental Math in the classroom The 18 NROC units correspond to CCD’s MAT 030, 060 (also our combined 030/060 = 045), 090 or 099, which can be selected by the instructor; units not used can be hidden from the student. CCD is using NROC in our: regular classes in place of a textbook online classes as a way to present the material flipped classrooms – students can learn the material before coming to class. high school remediation

The Future Changes are a coming…. All for the good of our students

Contact Information Please feel free to contact us at: Lara Urano Jason Burke

Questions? MATH