In the Fall of 2006, podcasts and a few web activities were introduced into Math 175, Applied Calculus. In the Spring of 2007, additional podcasts were created for the same course. In each semester, 2 sections (of about 35 each) were taught using the new enhancements. The web activities can be viewed by clicking on the "Web Activities" link in the left column of this page. The podcasts are available under the "Useful Links > Podcasts" link in the left column.

At the beginning of the Spring Semester, two surveys were created to help determine the student comfort with math and with technology. The surveys and the responses are listed below:

1. Math Opinions:
   • Survey Questions
   • Responses The above Survey Questions document contains the exact wording of each question and includes the description of each value. In general, and answer of "1" indicates disagree and "5" indicates agree.
2. Technology Opinions:
   • Survey Questions
   • Responses The above Survey Questions document contains the exact wording of each question and includes the description of each value. In general, and answer of "1" indicates a negative response (unsatisfied, never, disagree, etc.) and "5" indicates a positive response.

After each Exam, a survey was used to gather information about study habits and about the student perceptions of the web activities and of the podcasts. The podcasts started just prior to Exam 3 in the fall and continued to increase in number throughout the spring. In the spring (exams 2 and 3), an open response question was added relating to the student usage of the podcasts. There is a link to these detailed responses, as well as the complete surveys below (in each case, questions 8, 9 and 10 are most relevant to this project, but all are interesting):

1. Exam 3, Fall 2006
2. Exam 4, Fall 2006
3. Exam 1, Spring 2007 (detailed answers to question 9)
4. Exam 2, Spring 2007 (detailed answers to question 9)
5. Exam 3, Spring 2007

You can download a powerpoint document containing poster that was presented at the 75th Annual Mathematics Association Meeting of America by clicking here. The poster was also presented (by Jim Jorstad) at the Spring 2007 Joint UW-System Technology Conference held at Green Lake, WI. Groups in attendance represented each of the UW-System Institutions including UW-Extension, UW-Colleges, and UW-System Administration. The poster contains two summaries of the project, one by Jim Jorstad, the Director of Educational Technologies at UW-L (click here to view), and one by Dr. Bill Cerbin, a Psychology Professor and Assistant to the Provost at UW-L (click here to view). Bill and Jim provided frequent and very valuable feedback throughout the project.

Additional analysis of the data will be completed in the near future and posted to this site. If you have questions or comments about the above results (or if you would like more details), please contact me at hoar.robe@uwlax.edu .

Sincerely,

Robert H. Hoar

P.S. A friend of mine at another institution was interested in learning more about the software and hardware that I used in the podcasts. To answer all of her questions, I chose to create a "How-To" podcasts. It is rough (no edits), but it is quite informative. Click here to view the how-to podcast.