Developing interactive online workbooks for engineering and STEM mathematical education.
2021-11-26, 17:50–18:20 (Europe/Athens), Room1

The mathematical education of engineers and scientists is often considered as a distinct area of mathematics education. The School of Mathematics, at the University of Edinburgh, has two pairs of courses specifically designed for first year engineering and chemistry students. Around 500 students complete them during each semester.

As a response to COVID-19 pandemic, during the summer of 2020, the University of Edinburgh and Loughborough University collaborated to develop interactive online workbooks for the mathematics education of STEM students. Our approach was to use the STACK online assessment system and combine our experience gained with running the fully online course "Fundamentals of Algebra and Calculus" (FAC) with materials from the HELM (Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics) project workbooks.

Each interactive workbook is a Moodle quiz with textbook-style written content, worked examples, simple tasks and practice questions. Almost all questions are randomised so each student will have a collection of questions which use different values. After submitting a workbook, students can return to it, either to review the written material or to reattempt the questions. The workbooks are used as an introduction to each week's material and students can consult the textbook for more advanced topics and further exercises. Students receive immediate feedback on their attempt which promotes students' engagement and learning through assessment.

Developing the workbooks was a significant effort which required time and people. Student evaluations rated the HELM workbooks as a valuable and successful resource.

The plan is to make a general release of the workbooks in January 2022. Partners have agreed to release the resulting online versions of each workbook under Creative Commons licence, "CC BY".

See also: Talk slides

I completed my undergraduate degree in Physics in 2006 at University of Ioannina, Greece and I received a PhD in Experimental Nuclear Physics in 2013 from the same University. After that, I worked as a Teaching Assistant at the School of Physics and Astronomy and at the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh.

Since 2017 I have been working as Facilitator in Technology Enhanced Mathematical Education at the School of Mathematics ath the University of Edingburgh. My main role is to design and develop online assessments for the undergraduate Mathematics courses and also to give practical support to colleagues about the best use of e-assessment. Alongside this, I'm tutoring 1st and 2nd year Mathematics courses and I am mentoring PhD students who apply for their teaching accrediatation in the Higher Education Academy (HEA). I have a growing interest in scholarship of learning and teaching and how technology and e-learning can be used to support learners and educators.

Contact: k.zerva@ed.ac.uk