Teaching and Learning blog

The challenge

At the University of Tampa, math students must master challenging concepts to succeed in their coursework; however, this is most often easier said than done. Students must first grasp key math fundamentals before advancing to more demanding concepts. What’s more, instructors must have the tools to identify whether students understand prerequisite content and whether they’re absorbing new material as it’s presented.

The solution

MyLab^® Math from Pearson, which combines respected content with personalized engagement to help students and faculty see real results, is empowering a University of Tampa math instructor to keep his finger firmly on the pulse of his students’ mastery. The learning platform helps him make real-time adjustments to his instruction and avoid teeing up more complex concepts before his students are proficient in material he’s already delivered.

The story

Prof. Sasko Ivanov, a lecturer in mathematics at the 11,000-student private institution located in downtown Tampa, Florida, has been a loyal Pearson user since before joining the school in 2010. He’s made MyLab Math a staple in the main three courses he currently teaches: College Algebra, Precalculus, and Calculus for Business.

“I'm really grateful and thankful to Pearson for creating MyLab,” he says. “I find it really helpful, and I get very positive feedback from my students about how helpful it is.”

Many University of Tampa students must complete College Algebra as part of their general graduation requirements. Some students, such as nursing and pre-med majors, must take Precalculus before moving on to Calculus. Business students must take Calculus for Business.

“As part of my strategy at the beginning of each semester, I don’t assume that everyone is coming from the same knowledge background,” says Ivanov. “I review a lot of topics from College Algebra. In Calculus for Business, you’re expected to know everything about adding and subtracting fractions. In my experience, I find that’s not the case. Most students struggle with basic concepts.”

For example, Ivanov reports that more than two-thirds of students struggle with factoring — the process of finding what to multiply together to get an expression. Proficiency in the skill is essential in Calculus for Business. So Sasko takes a step back to assess where the learning gaps are and how he will try to fill them.

Learning Catalytics

Learning Catalytics, a standout feature within the MyLab Math suite, helps Ivanov identify and target key gaps. In fact, he’s integrated it into his daily class cadence.

“I love Learning Catalytics; I was so happy when I discovered it,” says Ivanov. “I get real-time feedback about what students have learned in the previous class and whether they’re prepared for the section we’re about to cover.”

The interactive student response tool allows him to rapidly deploy questions and surveys while assessing student comprehension. He uses the real-time data to fine-tune his instructional strategy for the lecture.

Ivanov typically begins each class by pushing out five questions to students via Learning Catalytics. How well the students answer the questions sets the tone for how he’ll approach the lecture.

“If I notice there’s a question that’s necessary for them to know for the next section and 80 percent of them didn’t get it right, it tells me that maybe I didn’t explain the concept the right way. So I’ll look at an alternative way to explain that concept and hopefully that will be helpful for them to grasp it so they’re ready to learn the new topic.”

The Learning Catalytics exercise normally fills the first 10 minutes of class. Ivanov may also deploy the tool at the end of a class to gauge how well students absorbed the day’s lecture material.

“It doesn’t make sense to move to the next topic if they haven’t completely understood what was covered last class,” says Sasko. “I’ll take my time to go over that concept one more time and maybe use some alternative way. Hopefully that will be more helpful for them.”

Students who miss a class appreciate the Learning Catalytics-powered quizzes because they provide an opportunity to see what they missed and get up to speed.

Taking notes

Guided Lecture Notes from Pearson offer students another valuable tool for organizing and comprehending course content, says Ivanov. He encourages students to use the Notes, along with additional important material from the text, and distill them into one page for use on the final exam.

“I started experimenting with that last year, and the students really liked it,” says Sasko. “I got positive feedback that they were allowed to use those summary notes. Some of them create nice notes.”

Students must upload the notes to their learning management system (LMS), Canvas, providing Ivanov with an opportunity to review and gauge whether they’ll be helpful to the student. He’ll inform students if he doesn’t feel the notes will be helpful, providing them with an opportunity to redo them.

As an added measure, Ivanov creates an extra credit review exam with 40-50 questions to support the Guided Lecture Notes. Students can gauge their performance on the extra credit assignment to help them determine which information to include on the one-page summary they bring to the final exam.

“I hope they go over the notes and extract the most important facts from the section(s) they must remember, or maybe they have a hard time remembering, so they will find it useful on the final exam. If they can’t remember it now, how are they going to remember it on the final exam?”

A purpose-built solution for success

With the suite of features MyLab Math delivers, Ivanov and his students have a dynamic resource to guide them through challenging curricula with confidence.

Ivanov encourages his peers to adopt MyLab, creating instructional videos to help them navigate and integrate key features.

“I’m really thankful to Pearson,” says Ivanov. “I think it’s a great tool. I see Pearson is constantly updating their platform. They’re doing great things.”

Patrick Golden is a writer, marketing and communications specialist, and former journalist based in Massachusetts.

Like many instructors, I spent years using and teaching with the TI-83 and TI-84 Plus calculators. These devices were considered the standard in classrooms across the country. They were reliable, widely available, and supported by nearly every textbook publisher. For a long time, I had no reason to question whether they were still the best tools for the job.

That changed when my courses transitioned to fully online instruction, and I began using Honorlock to proctor my exams. The issue was not the calculator itself. The real issue was what was hidden from my view when students were using the calculator. During testing, students were often looking down, out of sight of the webcam for long periods of time. I could see their faces but not their hands or their work. From an academic integrity standpoint, this was a major problem. I had no clear way to verify what was happening just below the webcam frame.

As someone who takes academic honesty seriously, I knew I had to make a change. That change came in the form of StatCrunch.

At first, the move to StatCrunch was driven entirely by concerns about exam integrity. Because StatCrunch is accessed directly through the testing screen, students no longer had to look down or shift their focus off screen. It kept their attention on the test and within view of the webcam. This single adjustment immediately improved my ability to monitor exams and reduced the risk of students accessing unauthorized tools or materials.

An improved student experience

Exam security was a primary need. To my surprise, I found that students reported higher satisfaction with the platform. They liked that they did not have to memorize sequences of calculator key presses to run a basic statistical test. They appreciated the cleaner interface and the ability to work directly with real data sets. Many students, even those with prior experience using graphing calculators, found StatCrunch to be more intuitive and less intimidating.

Another unexpected benefit was that test completion times dropped significantly. Students were no longer slowed down by the mechanics of navigating multi-step commands on the calculator. They could get results quickly and focus more energy on interpreting those results correctly. That, in turn, allowed me to shift more of my instruction toward critical thinking. Instead of spending large portions of class time explaining how to find a confidence interval using a series of keystrokes, I could focus on what a confidence interval means, how to explain it in plain language, and how to make decisions based on the output.

It also allowed me to stop teaching students how to use a calculator that was never really designed for statistics in the first place. The TI-83 and TI-84 are graphing calculators with a few statistical functions layered on top. Some of the features I needed had to come in the form of downloaded programs, which was a logistical challenge in any classroom medium. StatCrunch, by contrast, was built from the ground up for data analysis.

This experience even prompted me to rethink my approach in other courses, such as College Algebra. Once I saw how much more efficient and transparent things became using modern tools like StatCrunch, I started reevaluating my use of the TI calculators more broadly. That led me to explore Desmos and other platforms that provide powerful visualizations and eliminate the need to teach around the limitations of outdated hardware. What began as a change for one course evolved into a shift in my overall philosophy of technology in math instruction.

Far-reaching benefits

In hindsight, I regret not making this switch sooner. What started as a fix for one problem ended up solving many others. It improved the integrity of my exams, boosted student engagement, reduced confusion, and created more space in my course for meaningful learning.

There will always be a place for the TI calculator in some classrooms, especially where testing environments and course goals are different. But for online instruction, especially when paired with remote proctoring, I have no hesitation in saying that StatCrunch has become the right tool for the job.

And I am not going back.

Embracing Change

The questions surrounding AI have drastically changed within the past year. Questions surrounding technology range from “what is this?” to “what are its limits?” In the dynamic landscape of higher education, AI has been a transformative force, reshaping the way faculty teach and students learn.

Earlier this year, Pearson conducted a survey focused on generative AI (GAI) and ChatGPT in higher education, to examine faculty sentiment. Recently, Pearson revisited that survey, releasing it a second time to evaluate how feelings toward, and actual usage of, GAI has evolved. In just 6 months, a shift has occurred. There has been a 14% decrease in the level of concern for ChatGPT, and now over half of the respondents have familiarity with ChatGPT and its applications within education. This shift in perception paints an inspiring picture of an educational community willing to discover the transformative potential of GAI.

The Influence in Higher Education

Many believe that AI holds the power to revolutionize education – the degree of change remains up for debate. Some instructors aren’t yet making changes to their courses. Others are discovering a powerful ally in GAI when it comes to tasks like grading homework and enhancing course materials. Integrating AI into their workload allows instructors to save time and refine their courses to focus on their students.

Enthusiasm or Concern?

In the initial release of our survey a significant portion of participating instructors had reservations about the potential benefits of generative AI - this “game-changing technology.” Many respondents struggled to envision how GAI could benefit them. When the question was revisited this fall, one instructor commented that ChatGPT gives their students a “running start on their writing” allowing them to start with a structured foundation rather than a blank page. They found that “students can produce better papers when they use ChatGPT productively.”

Results this fall indicated that the percentage of faculty who are “excited” or “enthusiastic” is almost equal to the number who responded as “concerned” - 28.6% and 26.7% respectively. Faculty are leaning into GAI as another tool for learning and developing new content. Conversely, some expressed concern surrounding cheating, academic dishonesty, and plagiarism detection. In fact, one instructor believes “students who wish to do minimal work now have an amazing new way to cheat, and they are definitely doing so!” To help combat these concerns, some faculty are having open conversations with their students, and instructors are adjusting their testing protocol.

“This is really going to make us think about authentic assessment, and what learning means. Students are going to need to be able to use the technology to create code, aggregate data. But how will they know what to ask and if the answer is reasonable,” a faculty member commented. Furthermore, someone else said that ChatGPT presents the opportunity for students to think more critically and to fact-check more often.

Charting a Course Forward

When first distributing the survey, a notable 40% of respondents initially believed ChatGPT would change the industry, and have an immense impact on them. However, upon revisiting this question in the more recent survey, only a modest 10% of respondents experienced a discernible influence from the GAI tool. It is not uncommon to harbor apprehension towards change; however, sometimes it is not as daunting as it seems.

Since individuals and organizations are working through how to use this technology at the same time it continues to develop, many instructors have had to (or plan to) adjust their course requirements. Some are increasing citation requirements or making assignments more interactive. This journey of transformation effects all disciplines. One writing composition instructor started using ChatGPT in their class earlier in the year, and now has integrated it into their lesson plans. They explain that their “students love learning what it does well and what it does poorly, and by exploring its capabilities, they learn a lot about writing expectations and standards.” Thus, by integrating ChatGPT into their lesson plan, this instructor is guiding students to think critically about GAI and its competencies. Another instructor uses it to demonstrate how to compose code in other languages and plans to continue to adapt their class as GAI grows.

Embracing these tools as part of a collaborative teaching effort is the path forward. As one instructor comments, “students are going to need to be able to use the technology to create code, aggregate data, but how will they know what to ask and if the answer is reasonable?” When using AI in a partnership alongside traditional teaching, the instructor can step in, judiciously apply these tools, and help students discern when to employ them versus where conventional methods are more appropriate.

A Vision for the Future

The shift to familiarity and adaptation of ChatGPT and other GAI brings a new era of higher education. Similar to other major societal shifts, higher ed faculty find themselves with the opportunity to help lead the charge in forging this new path for themselves and their students by creating guidelines, and understanding how best GAI can be used. Even if you’re still reticent to embrace it, consider a common sentiment from our survey respondents - GAI creates the opportunity for open dialogue with students.

Every college math instructor has been there. The students have been actively engaged in class. They’ve completed their homework (for the most part). The majority have even turned in the test review that you provided. Yay! Then you grade the tests. Questions were left blank, many scored shockingly low, and several students left sad notes in the margins. Some did well, but so many failed that the bell curve is upside-down! How is it they learned so little?!

Then, we dive into the ice cream to ease the pain (or maybe that’s just me).

Well, put the ice cream back in the freezer, my friends, because there is hope! A few tweaks to the way you design test exercises could potentially improve test scores and right that bell curve, not by lowering standards, but by more accurately assessing student knowledge by asking more focused test questions.

How many levels of cognition are you assessing?

One of the challenges that college math students face is that most math exercises require several levels of cognition and a variety of mastered objectives. Consider the exercise: “Solve 5𝑥(𝑥−2) = 3𝑥−2.”

This series of statistical examples is intended to inform students about the statistics (and how it relates to the psychology) casinos use on table games to make them a more informed consumer. This series is not intended to be a “how to beat the house” or any other sort of get rich quick scheme. If I had a way to beat the house, don’t you think I would be doing it and not giving up the secrets? Overall, it is good to think of casino games as forms of entertainment, and you are encouraged to treat them as such. If you have or know someone who has a gambling problem, please use resources, and reach out to a professional for help.

Often students do not have a concept for the Normal Distribution when it comes to the sampling chapter, and the Galton Board is used to give students the visual reference in the classroom for discrete random variables showing a normal distribution when enough observations are dropped through the board. Unless students are soon to be contestants on The Price Is Right and are faced with Plinko, or NBC’s game show The Wall, they are not likely to encounter the board in their life outside the class. A more accessible way for students to see the normal distribution and understand the importance of sample size is the Craps Table.

 The casino game of Craps is simplistic: the act of throwing two dice and summing up the showing faces is the experiment in the game of craps. While using the full casino game with payouts and their corresponding probabilities creates a valued learning activity, this activity focuses only on the act of rolling the dice. To emphasize the previous chapters (discrete random variables categorization and visualization)  the image below shows the number of ways the dice total can occur:

ChatGPT is game-changing technology. As a large language model tool designed to respond to prompts based on a wealth of information it already possesses, the program has taken artificial intelligence (AI) to a new level. With just a simple request, ChatGPT can write essays, poems, computer code, and more. While some of those working in higher education are concerned about ChatGPT, many see great potential in AI technology.

Recently, Pearson hosted a well-attended AI webinar featuring a panel of education experts and innovators. Part of the conversation centered on helping educators better understand what ChatGPT offers. But the overall focus of the event was to provide perspectives and glean insights on what emergent AI technology means for educators now and in the near future.

The panelists began by discussing how ChatGPT is changing education. “This is historical,” said panelist Erran Carmel of the American University’s Kogod School of Business. “This will change everything.” Carmel and the other panelists went on to provide plenty of insight on the ways faculty can best embrace AI technology and benefit from it.

ChatGPT Concerns & Alleviations

Among those in higher education, the top three concerns surrounding ChatGPT and other generative AI include:

• Will it be harder to engage students in critical thinking and learning?
• Will cheating be more common and more difficult to detect?
• Will students leave school unprepared to contribute to the world?

While the panelists for Pearson’s webinar acknowledge the potential downsides of ChatGPT, they also recognize the many opportunities. And they have a lot of good advice on how to approach ChatGPT and related AI technologies going forward. This advice includes:

1. Adapt a growth mindset

In a recent Pearson survey, fewer than 15% of educators are ready to embrace ChatGPT. But the webinar experts agree that reticence is not the best approach. Instead, the experts recommend that educators familiarize themselves with AI technology and focus on the ways it can benefit teaching methods and student learning. Randy Boyle of Weber State University drove home the importance of embracing the technology when he said, “The organizations that are saying ‘how can we use ChatGPT to enhance our education’ are going to win.”

2. Bring AI into the classroom

“Innovative faculty find innovative ways to use disruptive technology.” 

Panelist Darcy Hardy of Anthology Education and Research Center made this point early in the discussion and the other experts agreed. Instead of banning ChatGPT and similar AI technology, the panelists advocate for teaching it. They suggest designing assignments that teach students how to use AI tools like ChatGPT and how to differentiate between generative AI and human-created works. Doing so can help students understand the applications and limitations of AI. Even simple projects where students critique work done by AI can help them see where AI provides value versus where humans provide value. Such lessons can help students prepare for a future with AI while also helping educators learn more about the ways students use and interact with the technology.

3. Discuss the impact of AI on the future  

As generative AI technology continues to improve, it will become capable of doing more tasks at a more complex level. However, this is not the same as replacing human critical thinking and expertise. Both faculty and students can learn how to incorporate AI to be more effective at their respective teaching and learning.

4. Normalize citing AI

When used properly, ChatGPT can be a student’s co-pilot. It can help them brainstorm, improve phrasing, and learn new concepts. The webinar’s experts recommend educators determine how they would like to incorporate ChatGPT into their classroom and set guidelines for students to follow. Panelist Anna Mills of City College of San Francisco said she teaches critical AI literacy and believes in “setting a norm of transparency and labeling of AI text.” She recommends students clearly label any portion of an assignment that was generated with ChatGPT or another AI tool—just like they would cite other sources.

5. Reinforce the value of writing

Yes, ChatGPT can write an essay. But how does that improve learner outcomes? The panelists agree that writing encourages critical thinking and students need to engage in it. To ensure they do, educators should reinforce the value of writing and set boundaries to ensure the development of critical thinking.

6. Continue to follow core teaching methodologies 

Just because technology is evolving doesn’t mean the foundational best practices of teaching have changed. Building a rapport with students, assigning drafts and edits, and being active in student learning can help students understand the value of education and use ChatGPT as a tool rather than a substitute for learning.

7. Modify the curriculum

Cheating has been an issue in education for a long time. And, every time technology has changed, new methods of cheating have arisen. In other words, “innovations” in cheating is not a new problem. Educators can respond to ChatGPT in the same way they have responded to other new technologies over the years: they can adjust the curriculum to help prevent the new methods of cheating and ensure students are absorbing the material. “The academic integrity issues are important,” said panelist Erran Carmel, “but we should focus on learning… Let’s not get distracted by [the cheating aspect].” 

What is the expert consensus on the future of ChatGPT in higher education? 

The panelists who participated in the webinar all agree that we are in a historic moment of change—and the potential for positive change is high. To make the most of the moment, institutions of higher education should embrace ChatGPT and learn how to make use of it.

“From a global perspective on education, I could not be more excited,” said Darcy Hardy. The statement echoed the sentiments of all the panelists. There are always challenges when it comes to new technology but, with the right approach, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools can change education for the better.

The Role of the Affective Domain and ‘Soft Skills’ in Collegiate Math

Although students are reaching college-level math classes sooner due to many of the recent acceleration projects, they often arrive without developing many of the student skills that would improve their chances for success. One way we can help our students to develop those skills is through the use of prompts and assignments that focus on the affective domain.

I like to use a series of prompts in my classes, because they are powerful and flexible. They can be used for writing assignments, discussion board prompts, or to start face-to-face classroom discussions. The in-person discussions can start with student volunteers sharing their responses, or they could use a think-pair-share format. They fit well in corequisite support classes, as well as the main credit bearing course. Finally, the instructor could devote as little as 5-10 minutes of class time to these prompts or use an entire class session.

I focus on topics that I feel are most beneficial to my students, helping them to be more successful in my class as well as becoming a better learner in general. I like to start with prompts related to developing a growth mindset, because I believe that helping students reset their mindset regarding mathematics is an important first step on the path to success. 

I then follow up with prompts related to time management. Our students are over committed, yet lack skills for scheduling, organizing, or prioritizing tasks. Many students struggle with procrastination as well. These prompts lead to discussion and the discovery of strategies to improve time management.

After growth mindset and time management, I like to add prompts for goal setting using S.M.A.R.T. goals, reflection, and other study skills. You can tailor your choice of subjects to the skills you feel are most important, or to build up skills that your students need the most help with.

Lastly, I have assembled a set of 30 prompts that are included in the new third edition of Interactive Statistics, including notes for using them in class. Please reach out to me if you have any questions on using affective domain prompts in your classes, or if you are looking for feedback on strategies that you are using to help your students. 

Try a prompt in your class with one of these samples.

Many virtual resources exist in MyLab and elsewhere to help students see concepts of calculus. For example, we have embedded almost 800 interactive figures in our Calculus eTextbook (Briggs, Cochran, Gillett, and Schulz) in MyLab. The figures available in our interactive eTextbook have been used successfully by tens of thousands of teachers and students to master calculus concepts, such as finding the volume for a solid of revolution. However, an interactive figure on a device screen is not helpful for every calculus student and is likely useless for a visually impaired calculus student.

The challenge of helping every student learn mathematics has weighed on me throughout my teaching career; that is one reason I have been passionate, obsessed perhaps, about creating interactive visualizations. However, I have had students for whom the interaction of a figure on screen has not been sufficient for them to understand the concept being visualized in the figure. For these students, a physical 3D object to feel and manipulate would have been helpful. Furthermore, 3D objects have great potential to help us teach calculus to students with significant visual impairments.

I have embarked on a new project this year to create a large number, say 100 or so, of 3D printable objects for calculus, beginning with solids of revolution and continuing through multivariable and vector calculus. For example, the following image is a 3D solid used for approximating the volume of the solid of revolution created by revolving the area in Quadrant I beneath the curve around the -axis using cylindrical shells, with .

For each 3D object, an image of the solid, an STL file, and the Mathematica source code used to create the STL file will be accessible from within any course in MyLab using our current calculus materials. The 3D objects can be sliced and printed on your own 3D printer or easily sent to an online 3D printing service.

Watch the webinar >