Promoting Proactive Behavior through Motivation: Required Math Lab Hours Case

Requiring that students enrolled in college algebra to spend hours in a computer lab has been a practice in colleges and universities to improve success and retention. In part, because students come with different backgrounds, skills, and the computer lab environment allows for personalized supplemental instruction and tutoring. However, the way this practice may cause problems among students. Prior to this study, we realized that college algebra students are not pleased with having to wait outside the lab to get in and have to spend three hours per week to a receive a small credit. The wait time is due to the limited lab capacity that cannot house a large number of students when they visit at the last minute or right after a large class meeting. Hence, we attempted to stimulate a proactive behavior of visiting the lab early in the week through offering an incentive. It entails reducing the number of lab hours for the same credit after achieving a certain mastery. The results show that the students responded well to the modification. The final exam mean test shows that the modification was an improvement.