Title: Development of an Integrated Local/Distant Mathematics Instruction Program: A Progress Report
1Development of an Integrated Local/Distant
Mathematics Instruction ProgramA Progress
Report
- Paul Eakin
- Department of Mathematics
- University of Kentucky
- paul_at_ms.uky.edu
2The work described here is a collaboration among
- Dan Chaney
- Paul Eakin
- Carl Eberhart
- K.K. Kubota
- Mike McKenna
- Mary Bond
- Jody Fast
- Laura Spencer
The developers freely share the software, texts,
instructional materials, methodologies, etc.
produced in this project for non-commercial
educational or instructional use.
3Development Strategy
- Develop on-campus versions of courses which
employ the distance learning tools and techniques
intended for distance learning - Unify DL and on-campus instructional development
4Advantages
- Permits DL development with safety net
- Provides conventional course as reference frame
for comparison - Spreads development cost over both local and
distant instruction programs.
5Program Philosophy as Aphorism
- If we cant make it work
- locally we have no hope
- of making it work at a distance
6Implementation Strategy
- Take a large enrollment course and develop
on-campus distance learning version - Add/modify technology incrementally
- Compare results, costs to concurrent conventional
course and make certain two experiences are
fully equivalent - Dont offer off-campus until on-campus issues
arising on-campus are fully resolved
7Development PlatformMa123
- 3 semester hour intro calculus course
- General studies course
- Approx 1200 students per semester in sections of
about 35 first-day enrollment - Course generally not considered a success
- poor success rate (over 30 dropout or fail)
- poorly prepared students
- low student/faculty satisfaction
8Ma123 Fall 1999
- 23 traditional sections of about 30
- taught by TAs, PTIs, and Faculty
- 7 experimental sections of about 30
- taught by 2 faculty and 2 TAs
- Instructors were volunteers, students were not.
9Fall 1999 Format Traditional
- Commercial hardbound text (70)
- Undergraduates employed as homework graders (350
per section) - 3 (uniform) midterm examinations plus final
- Class meets three hours per week of formal
lecture by instructor
10Fall 1999 Format Development
- Free text (html, softbound copy from
bookstore (6) ) - web-based homework system
- formal lectures on Internet and CD
- 3 (uniform) midterm examinations plus final
- class time (3 hrs per week) used for recitation,
collaborative work, ad hoc lectures at
instructors instruction
11Current Results in Ma123
- Quite comparable
- first test (algebra review) disaster.
- Second test very high grades
- No improvement in drop rate
12Results (continued)
- weaker students have lot of trouble with
video-based lectures (compliance) - Strong correlation scores/attendance/compliance
- High level of acceptance, success among compliant
students
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17Description
- Student View
- Faculty User View
- Materials Development Process
18Primary Student Interface Instructors Web Page
- syllabus
- links to html text
- links to chat system and FAQ systems
- links to WQS system for course materials (e.g.
homework, review materials, video lectures, etc)
19Student Interface Instructors Web Page (part 1)
System tutorial
Course syllabus
Visual class rolls
Exam schedule
20Class Roll
21Instructors Web Page (part 2)
Link to wqs system server
Student emails from homework system with
responses
Links to lecture notes for video lectures
22Responses to Student Questions
Page references particular assignment
Student query
Instructor response
23Instructor Web Page (part 3)
Link to wqs system
Link to online text
Links to lecture slides for video lectures by
chapter
24WQS System current login screen
Students select video lectures menu or their
class homework menu
Group logins and work are encouraged
25Typical Section Menu
Chapter 1 homework
Review for test II
26Homework Page Current Format
System response
Student answer
Email window
System answer
Problem and answers
27Most students print the problem sets out and
record their solutions or solutions from class
directly on the printouts
28Video Lectures Menu
Lecture Slides (html)
Video of lecture segment (10-30 min)
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30Other Materials Test Review with Video Solutions
31Other Materials Test Review with video solutions
Problem statement with diagram
Link to video solution
32Data Logs
- Every student action is logged with time stamp
- All activity credited to each member on group
login - Total number of answers submitted (right or
wrong) correlates very well with performance on
tests
33Log Data
34WQS Video
- Materials prepared by faculty
- conversion to ASF and formatted by grad students
and staff - lectures by faculty and graduate students
- separate video and homework (original system)
- converting to merged text/homework/video
35Graduate Student Editing Video Files
36WQS CDs
- Natural corollary of HTML format
- easily made at faculty desk, cheap
- Originated through necessity
- Strongly favored by upper-level students who tend
to live off-campus - Not used much by lower level students who tend to
live on campus
37WQS and Video Lecture Materials Preparation
- Materials developed by faculty using a variety of
standard tools (e.g. Maple, LaTeX, Perl). - Individual item described by a file called
data in directory specific to item. It
describes how construct the item. - locations of item directories placed in control
file called wqs-dirs which is known to the wqs
server and describes the section menu page
38Faculty Preparing Materials
CD burner and blanks
food
coffee
39Maple Source Homework Problem
Question Tag( Q_ )
SKIP Tags
Answer Tags ( A_ )
Correct Answer Tag
40To create and post a simple wqs homework set
- Source document is exported to html from Maple
menu - exported html document is processed by Perl
script to - create a file which describes the final
document to the server - make an entry in a control file owned by the
document creator which the system uses to locate
the item and build the course menu
41The data file which describes the final document
These correspond to tags in source document
These correspond to segments of html in
exported document which were delimited by the
tags
42Sharing Materials
Ken made homework set number 8
Paul made homework set number 7
43Lauras Ma123 Control File
44Other Experiment Linear algebra
- Same system
- Use standard text (Strang)
- 4 of 6 sections (one at community college 200
miles away) - Instructor there helped make videos in summer
- Works very well
- excellent compliance
- to date results as good or better than
traditional
45Control File for Joe Mahoneys Paducah, KY
Section of Ma322
Carl Eberhart created the homework for the Ma322
sections
46Joe Mahoney and Avinash Sathaye did Videos for
MA322
47Sharing
- Instructor A can use instructor Bs entire menu
simply by copying Bs control file (with
permission) - Instructor A can use any item in instructor Bs
menu simply by copying the corresponding entry
from Bs control file (with permission) - In either case student email will be routed to A
and activity logged to As students
48Planned changes for Spring 2000
- Re-written, expanded text as multimedia document
including homework, videos, reviews, etc. - Continuous reporting of log data to students,
- Full sets of CDs available to students in advance
49Unified Format
Video link
LaTeX math formatting
50Web homework is part of text in unified format
51Unified Format
- Puts all services (text, video lecture,
homework, reviews, etc.) on one page - Moves login to end of process gets students
immediately to the subject matter - Nicer text through use of LaTeX
- Shorter video segments
- Development more complex
52http//www.ms.uky.edu/wqs
- Paul Eakin
- Department of Mathematics
- University of Kentucky
- Lexington, KY 40606
- paul_at_ms.uky.edu
53Pictures/slides
- Copies/scanned of a set of student wqs homework
- page from book