Students are increasingly pursuing their education online. Although wide-ranging distance learning options offer learners flexibility and increased access to education, research shows that failure and withdrawal rates are sharply higher in online courses than in equivalent in-person courses, including for developmental math. For distance learning to fulfill its promise to students, online math learning must be rethought.

Carnegie Math Pathways has designed and tested a new approach to online learning that moves away from the traditional asynchronous learning model, which provides few supports to enable student success.

This new brief highlights some of the key learnings from the design and implementation of online Carnegie Math Pathways courses as well as recommendations for how educators can support community and collaboration online in order to narrow the distance and promote student success.