In fall 2017, I piloted the use of single-point rubrics for certain assignements in my online ENH 245 class. Typically, a single-point rubric provides the criteria for proficiency, and then allows for feedback for how a student exceeded or failed to achieve proficiency in given areas, the goal being that the "undefined advanced column" places no limits on how students might stretch themselves" (Gonzalez, 2014).
ACC111, Accounting Principles I was new to the online format in the Spring of 2017. This assessment measured student academic performance of those in the online course versus their counterparts in the face-to-face course of the following semester (I did not teach a F2F, 16-week session of this course in S2017). Scores of the final course grades were compared to notate any difference in academic achievement/mastery.
Results:
ONLINE, 16-Week, SP2017 - the class average of the final score was 82.68%
Learning Community (LC) faculty have been saying for 6 years that the main focus on the LC is to help students in future STEM courses. Majoring in a STEM field is difficult; math is a barrier for most students. Approximately 20% of community college students start as a STEM major with 69% of them changing it to non-STEM. The LC course is designed to help students be successful STEM students and truly understand how math and physics are intertwined. So, student grades were analyzed from fall 2010 - spring 2016. Students that went through the LC vs.
Osmosis and the movement of water is a common theme in biology courses. Students first learn the concept in General Biology (Bio181/Bio156), then students have to apply it to human physiology in Anatomy and Physiology (Bio 201/202). Students have a difficult time understanding this concept as evidenced by only 39% correctly answering a question about osmosis in the kidney on the unit exam.