Fostering Student Retention through Success in Mathematics
While an immediate issue for the students dropping out, this also presents a significant challenge for universities. As dropout rates increase, institutions are left with diminished tuition revenue, which further exacerbates already stretched budgets. Universities are reacting by increasing supporting infrastructure through learning centers, office hours and personalized tutoring. While these efforts are well-meaning and can be effective, they suffer from a lack of uptake. Students just are not taking advantage of available resources to move the needle in significant ways. Now is the time to rethink our approach to math education and tackle these challenges with innovative solutions to reduce dropout rates and chart a path toward student success.
Let’s first try to understand why so many students struggle with math. While the reasons are complex and interwoven, evidence suggests they begin long before students enter university classrooms.
Many students arrive at university already behind in mathematical understanding, facing gaps that hinder their ability to engage with university-level content effectively. Lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made this readiness problem even more pronounced, leaving many students severely unprepared for the rigor and pace of university mathematics.
Beyond inadequate preparation, students face additional barriers, such as math anxiety and a lack of motivation to tackle a subject that can be seen as abstract and unimportant, especially in programs where math serves as a prerequisite rather than being the primary focus. Students view math as a barrier, reducing their willingness to fully engage with the curriculum.
When students are frustrated with a math course, which they need to pass but otherwise have little motivation for, they naturally look for shortcuts. The reality is that there is ample choice of tools to get the student through homework and assignments without a requirement to engage with and understand the material. Technology options are ubiquitous, from online sites to mobile apps like Photomath and Chegg, which are readily available on their mobile phones. More recently, the advent of AI and large language models like ChatGPT offer instant access to step-by-step solutions, bypassing the need for mathematical understanding.
While these shortcuts provide immediate relief from frustration, they exacerbate underlying issues. Students increasingly rely on external tools, fostering a superficial approach to learning. Once trusted indicators of student understanding, assignments become unreliable measures as they no longer reflect true student capabilities. Instructors lose valuable insight into their students’ actual proficiency levels, making it exceedingly difficult to identify and respond to struggles effectively. Often, the severity of learning gaps only becomes apparent during high-stakes tests and exams that disallow technological assistance. Unfortunately, intervention is frequently too late by that point, leaving students unprepared and more likely to fail or drop out altogether.
The abundance of options for students to take shortcuts also means that institutional investment in assessment solutions no longer provides the promised value. Instructors can no longer rely on these systems to provide an accurate view of student understanding and can no longer use formative assessment as a reliable guide for remediation. A crucial part of the educational feedback loop is broken.
Maplesoft has a long history of supporting students and instructors in STEM, with a particular emphasis on mathematics. With the introduction of the Student Success Platform, Maplesoft offers a targeted and innovative response to the dropout challenge. Central to this solution is the Maple™ Calculator mobile app, powered by Maple’s world-leading mathematical engine.
Students can actively practice math problems, verify their answers, and receive transparent, step-by-step solutions that demystify the problem-solving process. Moreover, students can enter or take a picture of their own worked solution and instantly receive detailed feedback. For instance, if a student is solving a system of equations and makes a substitution error in the second step, the app highlights that specific line, while still recognizing the correct setup and awarding partial credit for the rest. This level of precision and insight encourages students to engage more deeply with their work, promoting confidence and persistence in problem-solving. The platform addresses math anxiety directly by reducing the uncertainty and frustration associated with getting “stuck,” thereby increasing students’ confidence and motivation.
However, what truly differentiates Maplesoft’s approach from other common forms of technological support is its analytics capability. The app collects detailed, anonymized data on student interactions, capturing valuable insights into student learning patterns and struggles at an aggregated class level. For the first time, instructors gain clear visibility into how students approach their learning, what types of problems they attempt, where they are struggling, and where they ask for assistance, identifying precisely where misunderstandings and skill gaps exist.
The power of this approach lies in its ability to open up the black box of how students complete their assignments. Traditionally, only the students’ responses are available to instructors to assess the current state of knowledge and skill. The instructor lacks visibility into what technological shortcuts were taken and thus gets a possibly very misleading view of a student’s progress. This is true even when the students are required to use online assessment tools. It is simply too easy to use your phone to snap a picture of a problem on the screen and copy down the answer.
The data provided by the Maple Calculator App and the Student Success Platform points to a way forward. With clear data on student interactions, instructors can adapt their teaching strategies promptly, addressing issues before they solidify into insurmountable barriers, ultimately leading to students giving up.
Yet, feedback from many university instructors points to an additional challenge: Instructors are busy. Class time is limited. The last thing they want is an extra tool to worry about. The good news is that Maplesoft’s platform offers tailored remedial content for students. Leveraging an extensive repository of interactive learning materials, augmented by an AI-assisted content authoring team, the platform provides remedial content precisely targeted at students’ demonstrated areas of weakness. The instructor decides how much they want to get involved in this process. They can leverage the student interaction data to make their lessons more focused on the areas and concepts the students are struggling with. However, when they get busy, they can also step back and let the students take advantage of the provided resources independently.
The remedial materials utilize the interactive power of Maple Learn and the Maple desktop environment, transforming math learning from passive observation into active participation. This interactive experience is critical - math is not a spectator sport and is best learned by doing. Interactive learning environments like Maple help students intuitively grasp abstract concepts, significantly deepening their understanding and reducing anxiety and frustration.
Ubiquitous access to mobile devices and unprecedented progress of AI technologies present major challenges to our ability to engage students. We have no choice but to embrace this progress and find new, innovative ways to foster understanding and help students be successful in their chosen field of study. We need visibility into how students use technology as a shortcut in their classwork in order to mitigate the growing issue of AI use and misuse, and to enable us to identify and address areas in need of attention before it is too late. The Maplesoft Student Success Platform offers a path forward at multiple levels.
For students, it significantly improves learning outcomes by enabling authentic comprehension rather than rote memorization or surface-level engagement. By addressing core struggles proactively and early, fewer students are left behind, reducing dropout rates, and increasing their chances of academic and professional success.
For institutions, the benefits are both educational and economic. Lower dropout rates translate directly into preserved tuition revenue, supporting the financial sustainability of academic programs. Improved retention enhances institutional reputation, attracting future students and faculty committed to effective educational experiences.
On a more global level, addressing fundamental mathematical competencies creates stronger foundations for critical thinking, mathematical reasoning, and problem-solving skills that extend far beyond the classroom.
