Nashua Community College –Nashua, New Hampshire
Math Boot Camp Khan Academy Case Usage - Scott Holbrook, Math Instructor
Nashua CC placement policy
Students at Nashua Community College take the Accuplacer placement test and, depending on the score and consultation with an advisor, they are placed into a credit or non-credit math course.
Summary of Khan Academy Boot Camp
The Khan Academy Boot Camp at NCC is a free, two-week course that is open to anyone. Due to the length and pace of the course, students who succeed the most are ones with a relatively strong foundational understanding of math to begin with.
Goal of the class
The goal of the class is to prepare students to take the arithmetic and algebra portion of Accuplacer; ideally testing out of one or more developmental math courses which otherwise do not count towards degree requirements.
Instructional Model
Nashua CC uses a computer lab in a hybrid-style model. Because all of the work is done via Khan Academy, students can learn at their convenience whether in the class, at home, or anywhere there's an internetconnection. Students can work in groups or openly discuss topics at any point with peers or the instructor. This is a self-paced boot camp. It is a casual, comfortable environment.
Classroom procedures
Students enter class with headphones, watch videos, and complete exercise sets off of Khan Academy at their individual computer station. Students can discuss or work in groups and aid each other in any way if they choose. The instructor is there to fill in any gaps or to make sure the pace of the course is flowing properly. Because this is a hybrid course, "homework" and "classwork" is the same thing since they can be done in class or at home. Students have a syllabus that outlines all assignments that should be completed by a certain day.
Khan Academy usage in class
Khan Academy is used for everything in NCC's Khan Academy Boot Camp. A checklist of assigned work, displayed on the syllabus, is listed for students to complete within the 8-day span. Students watch videos on math topics and then complete exercises on these same topics; all topics correlate with what is on the Accuplacer test.
How are students graded
The boot camp is not graded, but student progress and achievement is measured by how much a student has accomplished on Khan Academy and their residual Accuplacer score. How much a student completes during the boot camp is almost always in direct variation with their Accuplacer score.
Student outcomes
The 2014 Boot Camp data will be fully available in fall, 2014. However, for each boot camp that has run at NCC, at least half of the students test out of one or more developmental math courses.