An interactive classroom success story: examining a large multi-year study of how to successfully deploy engagement tools
Brief Abstract
Learn how community college faculty studied the impact of implementing a multiple-solution platform in their instruction and experienced significant quantitative increases in course success rates across learner demographics. Faculty will discuss these study findings and share best practices for using interactive engagement, assessment, and media tools to connect with students.
Additional Authors
Extended Abstract
One of the biggest challenges for any community college today is ensuring that students are remaining properly engaged in the classroom. This has been especially true with recent and necessary trends that bend towards remote and hybrid learning. As many instructors and administrators know, this causes a host of new decisions and challenges: which tools are best to deploy? How can we tell whether the students are actually learning the material and not just showing up? How can I make it easy for my instructors and faculty to teach courses without an added burden? How can I ensure that a given technology platform accounts for certain inequities across a spectrum of backgrounds, ages, languages, etc?
During this presentation, you will hear from a community college faculty member who independently conducted a research study over a two year period in Allied Health classes using a classroom engagement platform. In the study, four sections of the course utilized the platform, and four sections of the same course did not - otherwise, the curriculum and assessments were identical in each section. Overall, students in sections using the platform showed a nearly 20% higher course success rate, as well as lower withdrawal and failure rates, compared to the control group. Further, higher course success rates were seen across all demographics including gender, race/ethnicity, age, academic load, and instructional location. The specific data, and the importance of these results as they relate to community college priorities, will be shared and discussed by the faculty and audience in depth during this session.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to experience how the instructional platform works by participating in examples of learning activities from a student’s perspective. With this approach, attendees of the session can familiarize themselves with one platform that builds deeper connections through interactivity, dynamic media, formative assessments, and more; allowing for the increased course success rates, for all learners, as seen in the study.