Date Available

12-2-2021

Year of Publication

2021

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Education Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Molly Fisher

Abstract

The pandemic forced more instructors and students to move to online learning. For the first time, many experienced a loosening of the reigns and were forced to allow students to submit non-proctored work. Many may have questioned what students really learned in the year 2020. Many college math course competencies emphasize procedures. Now that apps can do that for students, where does that leave math instructors? Additionally, online instruction has exploded over the last decade and has challenged the teaching of college mathematics. While online instruction opens the door to access, it does beg the question of whether students complete their own work and thus whether proctoring is necessary. These thoughts were heavy on my mind as I conducted this research.

This research sought to answer questions pertaining to the use of apps and proctoring in College Algebra. These two seemed inter-related as a deeper question behind proctoring is whether students use cell phone apps to solve problems and if so, does this circumvent the purpose of the course. The review of literature demonstrated limited work on the two topics individually but appeared to be totally missing the interaction of the two.

Additionally, much of the review of literature found a theme of conceptual versus procedural assessments. This study further addressed this topic in the assessment instrument provided. This study included the analysis of fourteen common College Algebra questions across four semesters. Results showed that proctoring and apps do make a significant difference in outcomes.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2021.416

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