NSF Award
2120751
This project aims to serve the national interest by improving curricula in online remedial mathematics education for first-year college students. The project will encourage students to develop positive help-seeking behavior, improve first-year student preparation for challenging STEM gateway courses, and equip students with skills to succeed in an increasingly technology-enhanced academic environment. COVID-19 has forced institutions of higher education to conduct academic instruction in online distance-learning environments. With much of this work being asynchronous and learner-led, it is increasingly necessary that students possess or develop instrumental help-seeking behavior (defined as requesting assistance to promote understanding and guide one’s future performance) to succeed in the isolated online environment. Specifically, the project will conduct an exploratory research study that investigates: (a) help-seeking behavior among students in need of math review, (b) points at which students elect to seek help and why, and (c) how instructors and curriculum designers can influence students to adopt instrumental help-seeking behavior in online remote learning. Help-seeking behavior will be further facilitated by enhancing existing online precalculus learning modules to include data-supported prompts (e.g. intrusive advising, automated reminders, instructional videos on help-seeking behavior). Participation in the study will be aided by an intentional recruitment strategy and fee waivers for the online course to 210 total students (70 per year) to ensure a statistically significant number of students participate in this exploratory research project. This project aims to achieve a short-term outcome of 80% of students successfully completing the online curriculum with a grade of “Pass” (from a baseline of 70%) and a midterm outcome of 80% of completers passing Calculus I with a C or better (from a baseline of 73%).<br/><br/>Over the course of this three-year project, the project team will use an iterative process to create and improve a conceptual model about relationships between help-seeking behaviors, instructor strategies, and short- and long-term outcomes for college students in STEM fields. Although there is a robust body of research examining help-seeking behaviors in elementary and high school students, there is a paucity of research examining help-seeking behaviors of postsecondary students in online STEM courses. Now that online learning has increased exponentially due to the pandemic, students potentially have even more access to sources of help, including instructor, peer, and anonymous online (automated) sources like websites. The benefits of online computer-mediated help-seeking behaviors, such as via email, are not yet clear. However, researchers have found that college students enrolled in courses with online components experienced less help-seeking threat than students in typical classrooms did, and they preferred to seek help electronically. The current gap in the literature is how to influence students to adopt positive help-seeking behavior deliberately in an online higher education learning environment. The project will shed light onto this highly relevant and understudied area. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
