the helm project: helping engineers learn mathematics presented by dr martin harrison project...
TRANSCRIPT
The HELM Project:Helping Engineers Learn
Mathematics
Presented by
Dr Martin HarrisonProject Director
The HELM Project
• Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics - HELM
• Major 3-year curriculum development project– Consortium of five UK universities
• Hull, Loughborough, Manchester, Reading, Sunderland– UK government funding £250,000– Oct 2002 - Sept 2005
• To enhance the mathematical education of engineering undergraduates by the provision of a range of flexible learning and teaching resources
HELM Target Group
• Departments and academics teaching mathematics to engineering undergraduates
• Engineering undergraduates– who are the focus of “the mathematics problem”
• Clear need for more flexible mathematics curriculum for engineering undergraduates
HELM Learning Environment• Using computer technology to develop
– A range of learning resources (Workbooks, CAL courseware)– Assessment procedures
• Integrate into existing programmes– Selecting stand-alone units– Adopting the whole scheme
• Use– To support lectures and continuous assessments– To complement existing resources and texts– For independent or group learning– Also useful resource for science students and even specialist
mathematics students
HELM Workbooks
• High quality written materials distributed to students as workbooks.– Paper-based (~2800 pages) and electronic versions
(PDF) are available
• 46 workbooks cover UK engineering mathematics & statistics syllabus
• 2 workbooks of engineering case studies & applications
• Student’s Guide & Tutor’s guide
HELM Workbooks - Sample
HELM Workbooks - Sample
HELM Workbooks
• Each Workbook contains
– Key points and contents in manageable sizes
– Tasks - guided exercises and worked solutions
– Students can insert their solutions
– Engineering examples
• Workbook 12, for example, illustrates all these features
HELM Interactive Lessons
• Web-delivered CAL courseware
– Multimedia interactive lessons (Authorware)
– About 80 segments related to 23 workbooks
– Audio, interactivity, revision exercises
– Self-assessments
HELM Assessment Regime• Computer Aided Assessment - why?
– To reduce burden on staff involved in continuous assessment
– To check if students have mastered a new engineering mathematics concept
– To encourage self-assessment (formative)– To drive student learning
• A regular pattern of short periods of study followed by assessment drives learning along at a steady pace
• Essential to gain the full potential of the other learning resources
CAA: Implementation at LU• Question Mark Perception (QMP)
• Integrated web-delivered CAA regime– Self-testing (Formative)– Formal assessment (Summative)
• CD based CAA regime– Self-testing is straightforward– Formal assessment may be more difficult
o Requires a mechanism for marks to be processed and stored.
CAA: Screenshots
• CAA: QM Perception Screenshots
CAA: Resources
• 4500 questions in about 150 question banks– Most have feedback as worked solutions, examples or
generic instruction
• Each bank contains 20 clones of each question
• Tests can be custom-made by selecting questions from more than one bank of questions
Trialling
• High level of interest
– Over 60 academics from over 40 UK HEIs or FEIs involved in the development and evaluation of the resources
– Universities/Individuals in Germany, Netherlands, USA have also expressed interest
Evaluation Outcomes• Workbooks• Significant uptake• Layout & content• Errors
• Interactive Lessons• Mainly used as an additional resource
• CAA• Widespread interest• Implementation overheads of web delivery led
to CD version
Modes of Usage
Lecturers’ use~20% as core notes
Half of these implement the CAA regime to provide formative & summative testing
~50% as supplementary material linked to lecture content
~30% in support centres
Students’ useIndependent learning, particularly
Mature students Special needs students, e.g. dyslexics
CAA: Likes and Dislikes• Students like flexibility
– Taking tests when they are ready– Taking tests where they want– Taking practice tests as many times as they wish
• Students dislike– Unforgiving nature of CAA– No marks for the method and intermediate steps
• Staff concerns– Common question banks for practice & formal testing– Cheating in unsupervised summative testing
Continuation
• Loughborough’s Mathematics Education Centre– CETL (Provision of University-Wide Mathematics &
Statistics Support)• Maintain the HELM website• Maintain the written materials (in electronic form)• Hold the CAA Question Bank
• Consortium Members– May update materials (for their own needs)– Could provide ongoing support (at cost)
Transferability• HEFCE transferability funding
– Partners• Leicester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes,
Portsmouth & Salford
– Oct 2005 - Sept 2006
• Aims – Encourage the effective transfer of practice across
institutions– Convert further HEIs into long-term users of HELM
learning resources– Monitor usage in different pedagogic ways– Evaluate the difficulties, successes & failures in transfer
Summary
• Need– More flexible mathematics learning resources
due to increasing diversity of intake standards
• HELM Learning Resources – Potential to enhance the mathematical
education of engineering undergraduates– Provide an alternative to lectures– Can be used in distance learning mode
Conclusions• HELM Workbooks
– Encourage student engagement during lectures
• HELM Interactive Lessons– Complement workbooks & aid understanding
• HELM CAA– Flexible access via web delivery– Facilitates regular testing of large numbers of students– Random question selection– Instant feedback– Incorporates formative and summative testing– Drives student learning
