Experiences in Using Interactive Exercises in University, High School, and Polytechnics level

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We present experiences of using on-line interactive exercises in mathematics learning. These exercises are automatically graded and so give immediate feedback to the learner. Also hints and fully worked-out solution is provided with most of the exercises. The problems are delivered through the Maple T.A. system which is a Maple powered automatic assessment system.

This material has been developed since January 2005 when the WebALT project started. Exercises were created both for the university level and high schools. For university level, exercises for Calculus were created and used in teaching in University of Helsinki and Florida State University. We present some of this material for universities and how it was used in a synchronous on-line Calculus course held in the University of Helsinki in Spring 2006.

High school exercises were first created in Finnish and used in the Helsinki School of Natural Sciences. In summer 2006 a team of students and teachers developed a comprehensive set of exercises for all the long term mathematics courses in the Finnish high school curriculum so they cover a wide range of topics from Calculus to Geometry. Most of this material is also translated into English. We present the pilot projects in some Finnish high schools and experiences obtained from them.

The Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia has used diagnostic testing for the beginning students of engineering with written exams. Starting from January 2007, Stadia has utilized the automatic assessment system to have these diagnostic tests done with a computer. Since the diagnostic tests should also measure how well the students master the level of mathematical skills learned in high schools the automatic exercises done for high school suited well for the tests. We present the arrangements and results of these first diagnostic tests.

Author(s): 
Pauna, Matti and Lehtonen, Kari and Viljanen, Marja-Leena
Publication_details: 
1st JEM Workshop ePlusCalculus, Lisboa Portugal
Type: 
Slide presentation
Date: 
2007/02/10
Partner_node: 
Helsingin Yliopisto
AttachmentSize
Presentation Lisbon pp 2003.ppt1.02 MB