Teaching Algebra

Algebra2Go creator Larry Perez talks about his online algebra resource and how he’s helping hard-to-reach students.
(Part 1 of 2)

How did you write the scripts for your videos? Did you try out your material on live students before recording? I’m imagining it like a sitcom, testing out your material with a live audience first, or did you just go for it?

The videos themselves are unscripted. Doing it this way seems to be more realistic to an actual classroom setting. (Before we go on, I want to make sure that you are aware that I myself take on the role of Charlie.) The first video I tried making was filmed at my home in a small room and I just went for it!

Prior to shooting this first video in June 2006, surveys and interviews were conducted with students regarding the lecture classroom environment. I found that some students did want to be called on during the classroom session as many became very nervous when I did this, and in some cases experienced tremendous fear of not knowing the answer. In addition, while studying math videos it was noted that in most cases everyone was talking directly to the viewer, similar to what instructors do in the classroom. The question then arose: do students experience a certain level of anxiety when they view a math video where the lectures speaks directly to the viewer? With this in mind the student character Charlie was created to allow me to re-direct the projection of information away from the viewer. Next, it was realized that Charlie could be used to break up the rhythm of the video by injecting elements of humor into the presentations.

There where mixed comments made regarding my early videos. Some students found them to be too long saying that it took me 5 minutes to do one problem. But some students just loved them and found the video to be very entertaining while simultaneously teaching them something. Future videos where refined using this student feedback. The videos that are produced today are still critiqued by a number of students with again mixed results. But what I have found today is that the students with the highest level of fear are the ones who enjoy the videos the most. These are the students that the Algebra2go project targets as these are the students that appear to have the lowest success rates in developmental math. The strong algebra students generally do not find the videos useful and sometimes see the student character Charlie as an annoyance.

My first student surveys back in 2002 revealed that many struggling students had difficulty trying to capture lecture notes while focusing on my lectures. It was then that I began to purchase lecture notes from my top students to see how they actually took lecture notes. I found that some students added their own personal annotations that I found to be useful in my effort in improving my own lectures. The following semester I was used their notes to model my lectures. Finally after a few years of this, I hired a former student to capture my entire semester of lecture notes for both pre and beginning algebra and decided to make them available to students. It was the students who suggested that I put them on the internet so they could have convenient access. This is how I ended up extending my teaching philosophy to the online environment.

Initially, I had no intention of using the internet to supplement my course. Student need is what drove me to the online environment. The videos themselves came after the fact where students suggested that I tape my video lectures so they could watch them at home. The pedagogical content within the videos mirrors the lecture notes, hence, mirrors my in class lectures. I never use the videos in my classroom, their intended use is to supplement my classroom instruction.