Open online homework and courses to support open textbooks

David LippmanPierce College Ft. Steilacoom

The Problem

• Many colleges rely on online homework and pre-packaged materials

• This can pose a barrier to adoption of open textbooks

• Especially hard for courses mostly taught by adjuncts or TAs

IMathAS / MyOpenMath

• IMathAS is an open-source online homework and learning management platform for math

• Algorithmic questions, auto-grading of algebraic answers

• Tens of thousands of questions created by faculty ranging from arithmetic through differential equations

• Full learning management system (LMS)

Open Courses

• Courses that combine and align open textbooks, videos, and online assessment– Some contain additional resources

• Courses created by– Open Course Library Project– Kaleidoscope Project– Individual faculty– Refined by users

Existing Courses

• Arithmetic & Prealgebra (dev)• Beginning & Intermediate Algebra (dev)• College Algebra / Precalculus (2 versions)• Trigonometry• Calculus (single variable)• Business Calculus• Math for Liberal Arts / Quantitative Reasoning

Lecture outlines, with examples

But what about quality?

MAA Review by Mike Kenyon, Green River Community College, 10/15/2012

We considered about two dozen texts in our adoption process […] Once the finalists were selected, it became clear that the Lippman/Rasmussen text was equal or superior to the others in quality and far outpaced them in cost. The vote of our full-time faculty was, in fact, unanimous.

There’s no reason to use any proxy for quality when we can look at student success directly.

Mercy College - (Wallace Algebra)Percentage passing with C or better

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

63.60%68.90%

48.40%

60.18%55.91%

64.50%

Fall 2011No OER

Fall 2012OER

Spring 2011No OER

Spring 2013OER

TotalNo OER

TotalOER

n=2,842 including pilot

Results – Math for Lib Arts

Commercial text + Blackboard (‘06-’08 data)70.2% pass rate, n = 131

IMathAS + Open Text v1 (‘08-’11 data)72.4% pass rate, n = 236

IMathAS + Open Text v2 (’12-’13 data)80.4% pass rate, n = 92

*No statistically significant difference

Student Success Data - Precalc

4850 students at Pierce, Green River, and Shoreline have used our text (over the last 2 years), vs. 5000 past students saw no significant difference in success, while saving $300,000+

Success Data - CalculusStewart/Hoffman Comparison

Five instructors taught multiple sections in 2006-07 using Stewart and then multiple sections in 2007-08 using Hoffman.

The student success numbers for these five instructors were virtually identical using each text, but 4 of the 5 had slightly greater student success using Hoffman

Bellevue College used Stewart (2006-07) and Hoffman (2007-08)

Stewart N=622

Success = “ABC” = 74.4% Success range: 42 – 90%

Hoffman N=710

Success = “ABC” = 74.8% Success range: 40 – 95%

Using These Courses

• MyOpenMath.com is a free*-to-use installation of IMathAS, focused on courses aligned with open textbooks.

• IMathAS is open-source software that can be run on almost any web server.

* Support is an optional paid add-on

Try Them Out

Log on to MyOpenMath.com withUsername: guest (no password)

David Lippmandlippman@pierce.ctc.edu@drlippmandlippman.imathas.com