Academic enhancement and retention efforts in mathematics designed to support and promote enhanced STEM education for adult learners at Mercer University
Dr. Charles Roberts and Dr. Greg Baugher of Penfield College of Mercer University have for several years endeavored to support adult college students in beginning mathematics courses in an 8-week format. In order to share their completed and on-going practice and research with all college level STEM educators, they will report on progress in their efforts, which include a dissertational study of the effectiveness of an online mathematics tutorial, a combined peer tutoring and instructor based student assistant program, an extended summer algebra course, a specifically-tailored prerequisite course for introductory statistics, a collaborative effort (with non-STEM faculty) to substantially elevate students’ critical thinking, communication skills and problem solving abilities, and a comprehensive and intrusive summer-fall retention effort to insure that students’ initial academic experiences on campus are both rewarding and highly productive. Demonstrations of these efforts will include cooperative learning participant engagement strategies to facilitate an in-depth awareness of them
