In May 1999, the Ohio Board of Regents awarded $250,000 to Kent State University and $250,000 to Cuyahoga Community College for a project under the direction of Dr. Rosemary DuMont titled, "Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Remedial Instruction in the High School and College Setting: A Case Study Approach."

The "Efficiency Challenge Project" involves developing estimates of the costs and benefits associated with various models of mediated instruction in math and writing for remedial students and improving the educational achievement of TechPrep and entry-level college students.

Mediated instruction software developed by Academic Systems Corp. is being utilized in this project. It is hoped that the use of the software in remedial classes will improve student participation and retention and increase their comfort level with new technologies.

Kent State University’s participation involves math and writing courses held in classroom labs located in the departments of English at the Kent campus and Math and Computer Science at the Kent, East Liverpool, Geauga, Salem, Stark and Trumbull campuses.

Participating faculty and staff received training from Academic Systems Corp. during the summer of 1999 in preparation for the first scheduled use of the software in the Fall 1999 course offerings.