Student performance in collegiate STEM courses is changing; a bimodal schism in student achievement is growing, with more students underperforming on assessments. Student dropout rates in the lower division outweigh those in the upper division, and early struggles in introductory STEM courses can dissuade students from completing a program.

Utilizing Behaviorism via a joint Criterion Referenced Instruction and Mastery Learning system may address this issue. Students first complete preassessments of required entry skills. Afterwards, they receive modules tailored to their remediation needs. This is rooted in feedback loops and branched scenarios that pertain to task analysis of different skills that identify areas of misconception.

This project is to serve as proof-of-concept for the development and implementation of an instructional tool pertaining to a lower-division engineering topic (Mass and Energy Balance) that can be utilized as an Open Educational Resource within the Learning Management Systems across SUNY campuses with engineering programs.

Project currently ongoing