Asee peer logo

Revising College Algebra Instruction to Accept and Incorporate the Use of Smart Phone Applications

Download Paper |

Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Mathematics Division Technical Session 3

Tagged Division

Mathematics

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37684

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37684

Download Count

600

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Zeynep Akcay Ozkan City University of New York, Queensborough Community College Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-2530-2761

visit author page

Dr. Zeynep Akcay Ozkan is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York. She received her PhD in Applied Mathematics from the joint program at New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers Universities (2014), with concentration on Mathematical and Computational Neuroscience. She also holds an MS degree in Financial Mathematics from Florida State University (2009).
Dr. Akcay Ozkan’s research interests include Online Teaching of Mathematics. She has completed several workshops on online teaching since 2016. She mentors faculty members as they develop their online or partially online courses and assesses their courses with the Quality Matters Rubric. She has served in the eLearning Committee of the college in chair and secretary positions. She is a member of the Math Department’s Best Practices in Teaching and Learning Committee since 2017, and served in chair and secretary positions.

visit author page

biography

Dona Boccio City University of New York, Queensborough Community College

visit author page

Dr. Dona Boccio has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the City University of New York Graduate Center, and an M.S. in Mathematics from New York University - Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. She has taught mathematics at Queensborough Community College since 1980.

Dr. Boccio was a recipient of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) Teaching Excellence Award in 2017. She also received the 2005 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Mathematics Education from the New York State Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges (NYSMATYC).

She was a Faculty Fellow in the 1998 and 2001 NASA-ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Programs, the 2002 NASA Faculty Fellowship Program, and then spent a sabbatical year at NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center. Her research included tracking orbital debris and modeling atmospheric pressure on Mars.

Dr. Boccio frequently collaborates with faculty from other departments on grants, pedagogical research, and course design. She has mentored numerous faculty from outside her department in the eLearning program.

visit author page

biography

Dugwon Seo City University of New York, Queensborough Community College

visit author page

Dr. Dugwon Seo is an assistant professor in the Engineering Technology Department at Queensborough Community College. Dr. Seo has been teaching engineering technology courses including digital circuit, computer applications, computer-aided analysis, and renewable energy. Her research interest includes various renewable energy, digital circuit system, remote sensing, and technology education.

visit author page

biography

Sirin Budak Univeristy of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

visit author page

She is an associate professor of mathematics education at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. Her research area includes representations, visualization, and the effect of technology in learning.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

The unavoidable transition to online education due to Covid-19 pandemic has impacted instruction at all grades and in all subject areas, including college level Mathematics courses. One of the issues that has been faced is the inability to proctor exams properly. Calculators with Computer Algebra Systems and their corresponding smart phone applications can provide not only answers to most problems, but they also provide solution steps. Mathematics departments at many institutions have established policies which regulated the use of calculators and smart phones in lectures and exams. However, lack of proper proctoring in online courses makes it possible for students to pass a course, even with a decent grade, without learning the concepts. On the other hand, as the use of computers became more common, many skills previously considered as required are not required anymore, such as learning how to use logarithmic tables to evaluate logarithms. In this study, we first demonstrate the capabilities of smart phone applications and provide tips for writing procedural problems that are not easily solvable by these apps. We show examples of problems that are solvable by the apps and suggestions to revise them. Second, we discuss general suggestions on how to revise the College Algebra instruction, especially for engineering students. Our suggestions aim to fill in the gaps that could potentially be created when these apps are commonly used among students. In summary, we review and revise College Algebra instruction and assessments to accept and incorporate the use of smart phone applications. Revised topics, together with effective assessment strategies will potentially improve learning outcomes, especially when the course is taught online. Our work concentrates on revision of College Algebra topics for Engineering students, but our strategy can be applied to revise other mathematics topics for any major.

Akcay Ozkan, Z., & Boccio, D., & Seo, D., & Budak, S. (2021, July), Revising College Algebra Instruction to Accept and Incorporate the Use of Smart Phone Applications Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37684

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015