Effectiveness Of Developmental Education Computer Assisted Instruction

One of the most daunting tasks community colleges face is trying to provide their curriculum in an efficient and effective manner to assist under-prepared students to begin college-level coursework in their pursuit of postsecondary education and success in college level courses. This study examined the Computer-Assisted Instructional (CAI) method as an alternative to the Traditional method of instruction for the lowest level of developmental education in the content areas of mathematics, reading, and sentence skills, and to specifically determine the comparative effectiveness of these two delivery modes in terms of student success, retention, and costs. CAI participants increased their ACCUPLACER mean scores significantly over time by 22.74 points or 72.6%, success rates as 86% passed their initial course in comparison to 59.8% of students taught in the Traditional format, and had greater success (74.1%) in subsequent classes than students taught via the Traditional instructional method (51.9%). In addition, the cost per credit analysis projected 54.6% savings if CAI is used as the alternative instructional modality.