Enhancing Online Mathematics Learning: The Cohesive Work of an Instructional Platform and an Instructional Team

Studies in online STEM education have shown that instructional platforms enhance communication and students' engagement. Despite the relevance of these platforms as communicative tools to support online learning, we cannot neglect the impact of the human connection if we want to ensure an equitable learning environment for online asynchronous students. Mathematics online education has lacked research on how an instructional team can use an instructional platform to promote participation and enhance students' performance. In our study, we used a descriptive-correlational research design to explore this connection in the context of an online asynchronous math course across eight semesters. Our findings showed that the combination of these technological and human resources (Microsoft Teams and an instructional team) improved student participation and performance in our online asynchronous course. While each group of students (online campus and main campus) saw improvements in participation and performance, online campus students saw greater improvement. We hope our findings inform online math teaching to improve students' learning experience and provide new research opportunities to study the reasons behind them.