Pisano, S., & Fulgham, B. (2019, June), Toward Better Applied Math Placement for Engineering Students  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33450

\bibitem{asee_peer_33450}
  Pisano, S., \& Fulgham, B. (2019, June), \emph{Toward Better Applied Math Placement for Engineering Students}
  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida.
  10.18260/1-2--33450

Stacie Pisano and Bernard Fulgham.  "Toward Better Applied Math Placement for Engineering Students".  2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2019.  https://peer.asee.org/33450 Internet.  14 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_33450}
  Stacie Pisano and Bernard Fulgham.
  "Toward Better Applied Math Placement for Engineering Students".
  \emph{2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2019.
  https://peer.asee.org/33450 Internet.  14 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_33450
author = "Stacie Pisano and Bernard Fulgham"
title = "Toward Better Applied Math Placement for Engineering Students"
booktitle = "2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2019"
month = "June"
address = "Tampa, Florida"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/33450}
number = {10.18260/1-2--33450}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - When students are empowered to make their own choices, how can they be persuaded to make a better choice?

At our institution, the engineering curriculum assumes that incoming students have already successfully completed Single Variable Calculus I in high school.  For this reason, students are generally expected to take Single Variable Calculus II (or beyond) in their first semester.  In reality, although most of our students have taken Calculus I in high school, there are many students who have not mastered Calculus I sufficiently to take Calculus II as their first college course.  Until our efforts to create one, our institution was not offering a placement test to identify students who were insufficiently prepared for Calculus II.  Also, most placement tests that are currently available are focused on assessing Calculus readiness in general rather than readiness for Calculus II specifically.

The plan was to create and deliver a placement test system that would achieve the following goals and requirements:
1)	Is free to students with no added direct costs to the institution.
2)	Is fool-proof enough that students may successfully take a scheduled and timed test from home before the first semester.
3)	Collects calculus background information like high school courses, grades, and AP test scores.
4)	Assesses students’ current abilities in pre-Calculus, Single Variable Calculus I, and Single Variable Calculus II.
5)	Includes an algorithm to provide personalized placement recommendations to students based on both their reported calculus background and on the results of the assessment.
6)	Includes a process to identify students who have improperly self-placed.
7)	Provides students with access to advisors regarding placement recommendations.
8)	Tracks and links placement test results and recommendations to final exam results from the first semester to assess the quality of the recommendations.
9)	Includes improvements to test questions and to the placement algorithm to improve matching in future years.

The placement test system was delivered in Summer 2018. Qualtrics was used to register students and to collect calculus background information, and WeBWorK was used for the actual placement test.  An immediate result was a larger cohort of students enrolled in Single Variable Calculus I at the beginning of the semester thereby avoiding the large mid-semester shift from Single Variable Calculus II to Single Variable Calculus I that had previously  been typical 

This paper includes information and data about
1)	Compliance rate.
2)	Overall placement test averages for the various test sections and topics.
3)	Final exam score comparisons for students who self-placed below recommendation, at recommendation, or above recommendation.
4)	What was learned and what improvements are planned.

We have interesting information to share about this alternative placement system and how our placement recommendations compare to where students placed themselves both before and after the recommendations.

AU  - Stacie Pisano
AU  - Bernard Fulgham
CY  - Tampa, Florida
DA  - 2019/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Toward Better Applied Math Placement for Engineering Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/33450
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--33450
ER  -