A Perfect Match for Student Success: UMGC and MyLab
The big challenge
The University of Maryland Global Campus made a major decision several years ago. Instead of investing in curriculum from various publishers, the school opted to try Open Education Resources or OER back in 2014. It was a way to ease the financial burden for students.
Years later in 2018 the school, which today has a worldwide enrollment of 305,000, reduced and in some cases eliminated developmental math as a pre-requisite. It proved to be a disaster. Unfortunately, OER didn’t provide nearly enough critical support for students who were ill-prepared for college level courses.
A perfect fit for success!
Given the nature of the challenge, UMGC Math and Statistics Program Director John Beyers partnered with Tiffany DePriter, Statistics Coordinator/Instructor, to explore possible solutions. They decided to use an adaptive resource and elected to pilot Pearson’s MyLab and compare it to ALEKS from McGraw Hill. After extensive testing and evaluations, MyLab was selected primarily because of its continuous assessment approach to support each student’s individual pace along the way. In addition, it was an ideal way to customize the learning and fully engage with students using the remarkable array of tools that MyLab provides.
There were early indications that MyLab was going to shine as it exceeded success rates in the other two courses.
– John Beyers
The design of MyLab is more fluid in allowing us to check how students are doing along the way as opposed to strictly at the beginning of the course.
– Tiffany DePriter
As expected, a symbiotic partnership in the classroom between teachers and our exceptional Pearson technology resulted in a dramatic increase in student performance in the Math and Statistics department at the university.
Highlights from the UMGC case study
The university agreed to cover the cost of implementing the case study so as not to put a financial burden on the students. To justify the investment for MyLab, John and Tiffany needed solid evidence to prove MyLab was the best solution. They established a pilot program that they supervised for two and a half years. The scope of the program and how it was executed was impressive. It involved 12 instructors, 3,000 college algebra students and 3,500 statistics students, resulting in an increase in student success rates. The students liked the learning methodology and were less stressed as they found more relevance with what they were accomplishing.
We didn’t just start with a certain model... We really spent a lot of time with a group of instructors so with each iteration of the course it grew, it became better. As we learned more about MyLab, we tried to integrate more of the functionality into the pilot courses.
– Tiffany DePriter
Since integrating MyLab into the curriculum, John Beyers and Tiffany DePriter have seen grades rise across the board.
Given the encouraging progress along the way, the team committed to a full roll out in their statistics and college algebra courses. As a result of using MyLab, averages improved from 60% to 80% in statistics. And there was an increase from 50% to a whopping 80% in algebra.
MyLab improved college course scores from:
60%→80%
in Statistics course averages
50%→80%
in Algebra course averages
Students were more engaged, had more autonomy with their learning, and as a result retained more information leading to greater overall success and satisfaction.
Students were more likely to return for another class with us...
– John Beyers
In fact, John Beyers would recommend MyLab over OERs “one thousand percent” because of its resources and the reduced burden on the faculty. In the end, faculty engagement has increased and importantly the department has enjoyed a positive return on its investment.
Curious to learn more?
• Visit our UMGC case study and discover more of its impressive results
• Learn about MyLab and its outstanding features and benefits
