The HELM Project: Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics

1. The HELM Project:Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics Presented by Dr Martin Harrison Project Director

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. HELM Workbooks - Sample

7. HELM Workbooks - Sample

8. 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

9. HELM Interactive Lessons • Web-delivered CAL courseware • Multimedia interactive lessons (Authorware) • About 80 segments related to 23 workbooks • Audio, interactivity, revision exercises • Self-assessments

10. 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

11. 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 • Requires a mechanism for marks to be processed and stored.

12. CAA: Screenshots • CAA: QM Perception Screenshots

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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’ use • Independent learning, particularly • Mature students • Special needs students, e.g. dyslexics

22. 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

23. 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)

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. Contact HELM Phone: +44 (0) 1509 227461 Email: helm@lboro.ac.uk Web: http://helm.lboro.ac.uk