The HELM Project: Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics

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The HELM ProjectHelping Engineers Learn
Mathematics

• Presented by
• Dr Martin Harrison
• Project Director

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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

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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

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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

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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
• Students Guide Tutors guide

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HELM Workbooks - Sample
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HELM Workbooks - Sample
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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

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HELM Interactive Lessons

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

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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

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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.

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CAA Screenshots

• CAA QM Perception Screenshots

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Continuation

• Loughboroughs 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)

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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

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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

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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

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Contact HELM

• Phone [phone]
• Email helm_at_lboro.ac.uk
• Web http//helm.lboro.ac.uk