Turn-over and churn are a constant at the College. Training is an on-going requirement if materials that are developed are to be used, modified, and extended upon. The students were required to use both software packages by specific assignments. The use of required laboratory assignments was demonstrated necessary by the MS 098 study done by Title III in the Spring of 1997. Grades, it must be noted up front, are a particularly slippery slope on which to stand.
Grades can be subject to inflationary forces.
Using grades as a measure depends on the professionalism and integrity of the instructor. Yet grades are ultimately what decides the success rate of students in courses. MS 101 is a terminal mathematics course for the vast majority of the students at the College. In the Spring of 1998 the MS 101 section taught by the MSS Dana Lee Ling, using LiveMath and the Interactive Algebra and Trigonometry tutor, experienced strong success in the course relative to their peers in other sections. Whether the technology was part of this impact is undeterminable.