Helping More Students Complete College:
To better serve our students, Southern Arkansas University created a Division of Developmental Studies to improve course completion and, ultimately, degree completion of students entering college needing academic assistance. The newly formed division in partnership with content faculty and Student Affairs implemented an ambitious curricular redesign and student support initiative in 2011.
The redesign of developmental literacy and math was implemented to increase student learning and decrease time-to-degree completion in two ways: by embedding developmental coursework and support in the credit course and by accelerating the pace of developmental coursework to allow motivated students an opportunity to excel.
Benefit to Students:
Based on the Redesign Initiative learning outcomes, SAU students now have the opportunity to accelerate learning in developmetnal coursework and to engage in credit-bearing courses on schedule with their peer group.
Students entering SAU academically underprepared have the opportunity to complete developmental and credit-bearing literacy and math courses within one semester. In addition, students who require two levels of developmental math are able to complete both remedial courses (Transitional Math and Intermediate Algebra) within a single semester.
Literacy Redesign:
The literacy redesign focused on enrolling students in credit courses and dually-enrolling students in developmental coursework designed to support student success in the credit course.
Success of reading assisted students (86% pass rate) in general education course compared to general student pass rate of 50%.
Math Redesign:
The math redesign focused on streamlining curriculum to target each skill necessary for students to be successful in College Algebra by engaging students in targeted instruction infused with technology-enriched learning.
Pilot group showed significant improvement over traditional 16-week College Algebra success rates.
