The creation of ReMATCH was motivated by (1) significant portions of general chemistry students acknowledging they struggled throughout the semester with introductory math-related topics and (2) the demonstrated importance of self-confidence on student performance shown in research literature. The online tutorial, ReMATCH, uses research-based constructivist-practices to assist students with transferring familiar math skills/concepts to a chemical context; it meets students at their current level and provides confidence-building environments for practice. A two-year design-based research study examined whether this four-week asynchronous tutorial could improve student performance/confidence. Analyses incorporating quasi-experimental, correlational (including MLR) and qualitative methods indicated that ReMATCH-users performed significantly better overall and experienced a greater increase in self-confidence with math-related topics than comparison students (N>700). When many universities are moving to hybrid-courses, this research demonstrates that benefits of constructivist-practices on self-confidence and course-performance remain when introducing these methods asynchronously. Future research should examine ReMATCH effects in more diverse student populations.

Undergraduates benefit from online tutorial explicitly addressing concept transfer between math and chemistry domains

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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