| Southeast College of the Houston Community College System has adopted the Prentice Hall Interactive Mathematics Program for developmental mathematics courses. However, the effectiveness of the program has not been carefully studied. Specifically, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting this program as an effective means by which to improve the mathematics achievement. This study was designed to address this need.;The purpose of this study was to describe the effect of a computer-based multimedia, interactive mathematics program on the mathematics achievement of developmental mathematics college students. Therefore a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest nonrandomized research design was used to test the hypothesis in this study. In this study, the independent variable was method of instruction in mathematics---the Prentice Hall Interactive Mathematics Program or the traditional lecture-based delivery. The dependent variable was mathematics achievement (as measured by the departmental mathematics final examination).;This study is significant because it addresses two very real issues. The first problem involves the possible identification of effective computer-assisted instruction in the mathematics area. The second issue is that although colleges using computer-assisted instruction claim computers help, there is very little empirical data that support this claim. Research in this area is needed so that the effectiveness of new programs can be measured.;The results indicated that there is a statistically significant difference (p < .01) between the mathematics achievement of students who participated in a computer multimedia interactive mathematics program and the mathematics achievement of students who did not participate in a computer multimedia interactive mathematics program. The effect size (Delta) of 0.89 obtained reached the criterion established for educational meaningfulness. Many problems occurred due to the newness of the program. Slow server problems, software flaws, confusing feedback, problems with lecture videos, internet problems were limitations addressed in this study. The results suggested that the computer multimedia interactive mathematics program had not been effective with regard to mathematics achievement. |
