M.Ed. (Plan C) ONLINE SUPPLEMENTAL TUTORIALS FOR ALGEBRA 1 STUDENTS by Afton M. Brown A project summary submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in Instructional Technology

Approved: _________________________ Major Professor Doug Houlton _________________________ Committee Member _________________________ Committee Member _________________________ Head, Department of Instructional Technology UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2008

Outline for Written Summary Report Page Introduction ............................................................................................2 Description of project .............................................................................2 Conclusions ............................................................................................3 Recommendations...................................................................................4

by Afton M. Brown

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2008

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Introduction The online supplemental tutorials that I created for my creative project help address some of the challenges Hillcrest High School has faced with our Algebra 1 students. Some of these challenges include low test scores which are often due to poor attendance and/or student’s lack of confidence in their ability to be successful at math. Our end of year Criterion Reference Tests (CRT’s) have been below district average for the past couple of years, and our school failed to make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) last year because of these low test scores. The online tutorials that I have created can address some of our challenges by allowing students to assess information on their own time and at their own pace. These tutorials are available online and therefore can be accessed at any time. These tutorials give students an opportunity to study topics they feel they do not understand. The students who I had work through these tutorials had very positive responses. Description of the Project When designing my project I decided to focus on the big concepts that are taught in Algebra 1. Therefore, I choose to focus on polynomials, equations, linear functions, and systems of equations. Below is the layout of the tutorials in my project.

Algebra 1 Site

Polynomials

Equations

Linear Functions

Systems of Equations

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Rules of exponents

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One-Step equations

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Finding Slope

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Solve by Graphing

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Add and subtract polynomials

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Two-Step equations

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Graphing

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Multi-Step equations

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Solve using Substitution

Writing Equations

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Solve using Elimination

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Multiply polynomials

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For my creative project I focused on the tutorials relating to linear functions. Concepts relating to linear functions are some of the most important concepts for Algebra 1 students to learn. Generally at least 40% of the questions on the Algebra 1 CRT relate to linear functions. Below is how the linear function tutorial is broken down.

Linear Functions

Finding Slope

Graphing Lines

Writing Equations

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From a graph

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Slope-intercept Form

Given a point and the slope.

From a table

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Standard Form

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Given two points

Between two points

The linear equations tutorial home page introduces students to linear functions and gives students a chance to see if they understand the difference between linear and nonlinear. After a student view the linear home page they can then continue on to learn about slope. The slope home page identifies the differences between positive and negative slopes and again students have an opportunity to answer questions to test their understanding. Students can then advance to either finding the slope from a graph, from a table or between two points. Each of these pages consists of a short video lecture in which I describe how to find the slope and then I do several examples where I describe and demonstrate the process. Students then are presented with three problems in which they are asked to find the slope. If the student is not successful at correctly finding the

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slope then they are able to view the video again. The graphing lines and writing equations sections are structured in much the same way as the slope tutorial. After completing the linear functions tutorials I tested them with 7 of my algebra 1 students. I choose students of varying ability levels. I choose some high performing students with the hope that they would be able to identify any mistakes that I had made. I also choose struggling students to see whether they would learn more about linear functions by completing this tutorial. I asked the students to view and work through all of the tutorials under linear functions. When the students completed the tutorials I had them complete a short quiz about the topics they had just viewed. Of the seven students who tested the tutorials all but 1 got 100% on the quiz given afterwards. I asked the students for feedback after they completed the tutorials and was surprised and pleased with what they had to say. All seven students said they would access the site from home on their own time. One student emphasized the fact that it would be useful if she didn’t understand something in class to be able to review it again at home. I did find that all seven students involved have internet access available at home but two of the students said their internet connection at home would be too slow to play the videos in the tutorials. The high performing student that participated found a couple of mistakes in the questions that follow the video and I was able to correct those.

Conclusions This project has been a great experience for me. I have definitely learned a lot about designing curriculum. This project forced me to clearly organize the Algebra 1

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curriculum. The experience of organizing the curriculum and instruction in this way will be beneficial to me in my classroom instructions as well as in the development of future online tutorials. The development of this project has strengthened my abilities in html and web design. I was delightfully surprised by the reaction that I got from students about the tutorials. The students were very engaged in the tutorials and it seemed to strengthen their understanding of the material. I was also surprised that all students said that they would access it from home if they could.

Recommendations I have learned so much while creating this project. I have learned that loading videos onto a web page can be frustrating. I have struggled with loading large files with getting the correct code and with creating the videos. Having the videos available to my students is an important part of this project and I believe is very beneficial to the students. The time that I have spent creating and loading the videos I realize is not sustainable. For these online tutorials to continue to be successful I need to be able to easily add to and adjust them as needed. In a typical school year I would not have the time to maintain a site like this. For future MEd students deciding on what to do for their creative project my advice would be to keep it small and focused. Choose a topic and a project that is smaller in scope and just try to make it great. I think I choose a project that was too large and I am thankful that I was able to focus on creating just one set of tutorials. I feel like I have learned so much and I will definitely finish the remaining tutorials, although, I will most

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likely look into other options for loading videos and my site content. I plan on looking into Moodle and Wikispaces to see if either would be easier to work with than just html code.

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