In SVG a polygon can be specified using the polygon tag with the attribute points listing the coo... more In SVG a polygon can be specified using the polygon tag with the attribute points listing the coordinates of the vertices, e.g.:
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2021
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching of programming for undergraduate mathematicians was mo... more During the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching of programming for undergraduate mathematicians was moved online. This was delivered asynchronously, with students working through notes and exercises and asking for help from staff via online messages as needed. Staff delivery time was redirected from content delivery into a formal system of formative assessment, which replaced informal discussion and feedback during in-person classes. Formative tasks were submitted and feedback was provided via GitHub Classroom. Students were broadly positive about the formative feedback system and mixed about the need for live delivery. Formal formative feedback highlighted that students may hold incorrect views about the accuracy of task completion, making formal formative submission an effective use of staff delivery time.
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2020
A partially-automated method of assessment is proposed, in which automated question setting is us... more A partially-automated method of assessment is proposed, in which automated question setting is used to generate individualized versions of a coursework assignment, which is completed by students and marked by hand. This is designed to be (a) comparable to a traditional written coursework assignment in validity, in that complex and open-ended tasks can be set with diverse submission formats that would not be suitable for written examination or automated marking; and, (b) comparable to e-assessment in terms of reduction of academic misconduct, with individualization acting as a barrier to copying and collusion. This method of assessment is implemented in practice. Evaluation focuses on expert second-marking, student feedback and analysis of marks, and aims to establish that the partially-automated method can be useful in practice. The partially-automated method proposed appears to be capable of adapting a coursework assignment to make it less sensitive to copying and collusion (and therefore more reliable) while maintaining its validity, though leading to reduced efficiency for the marker. This paper therefore contributes the introduction of a novel approach to assessment which offers a way to bring automated individualization to the assessment of higher order skills in higher education mathematics.
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2019
A literature review establishes a working definition of recreational mathematics: a type of play ... more A literature review establishes a working definition of recreational mathematics: a type of play which is enjoyable and requires mathematical thinking or skills to engage with. Typically, it is accessible to a wide range of people and can be effectively used to motivate engagement with and develop understanding of mathematical ideas or concepts. Recreational mathematics can be used in education for engagement and to develop mathematical skills, to maintain interest during procedural practice and to challenge and stretch students. It can also make cross-curricular links, including to history of mathematics. In undergraduate study, it can be used for engagement within standard curricula and for extra-curricular interest. Beyond this, there are opportunities to develop important graduate-level skills in problem-solving and communication. The development of a module ‘Game Theory and Recreational Mathematics’ is discussed. This provides an opportunity for fun and play, while developing graduate skills. It teaches some combinatorics, graph theory, game theory and algorithms/complexity, as well as scaffolding a Pólya-style problem-solving process. Assessment of problem-solving as a process via examination is outlined. Student feedback gives some indication that students appreciate the aims of the module, benefit from the explicit focus on problem-solving and understand the active nature of the learning.
Part of the 'Review a legacy resource' feature, this article offers a review of the wiki ... more Part of the 'Review a legacy resource' feature, this article offers a review of the wiki created by the project Industrial Problem Solving for Higher Education (IPSHE), which offers a collection of mathematics project briefs inspired by industrial collaborations suitable for all undergraduate levels. This article provides a brief overview of the IPSHE resource.
Over recent decades, our community has operated numerous projects and produced countless resource... more Over recent decades, our community has operated numerous projects and produced countless resources. Certainly some of these were of their time and are now of limited value, but many still offer huge potential for those engaged with teaching, learning, assessment and support in higher education mathematics, statistics and OR. However, projects that are no longer running may not be in a position to advertise their resources, so how will people discover them? I write to propose a new feature in MSOR Connections that would offer short reviews of legacy resources. These could be resources for use with students or teaching practice guides. The aim is to shine a light on little-used, perhaps-forgotten but good-quality resources produced under now-defunct projects.
To inform discussion about content for the first year of undergraduate mathematics, a study was c... more To inform discussion about content for the first year of undergraduate mathematics, a study was completed which reviewed: the A-level Mathematics specification; published literature on the transition from A-level to university mathematics; the second and third year curricula of modules at three English universities with different foci. This aimed to investigate what students might reasonably be expected to have covered when they arrive at university, what happens in practice at the transition to university, and the role of the first year as preparation for later study. Content suggestions focus on calculus, linear algebra and analysis as core topics. There is also evidence of the need to focus on students' understanding of where formulae and solutions originated as well as their ability to produce pieces of academic and mathematical writing. Findings also include suggestion that what happens in the first year, while similar between institutions, does depend on the overall focus ...
BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, 2014
The unplanned impact of mathematics' refers to mathematics which has an impact that was not plann... more The unplanned impact of mathematics' refers to mathematics which has an impact that was not planned by its originator, either as pure maths that finds an application or applied maths that finds an unexpected one. This aspect of mathematics has serious implications when increasingly researchers are asked to predict the impact of their research before it is funded and research quality is measured partly by its short term impact. A session on this topic has been used in a UK undergraduate mathematics module that aims to consider topics in the history of mathematics and examine how maths interacts with wider society. First, this introduced the 'unplanned impact' concept through historical examples. Second, it provoked discussion of the concept through a fictionalised blog comments discussion thread giving different views on the development and utility of mathematics. Finally, a mock research funding activity encouraged a pragmatic view of how research funding is planned and funded. The unplanned impact concept and the structure and content of the taught session are described.
The world of XML is filled with acronyms and jargon. This article aims to give a brief summary of... more The world of XML is filled with acronyms and jargon. This article aims to give a brief summary of some XML formats that may be useful or interesting. XML XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language [1]. Readers who know a little HTML may benefit from the statement 'XML is like HTML where you can make your own tags' (almost true; see below on XHTML). For those who don't, XML uses tags to enclose text giving it particular meaning. For instance, the following is some text marked as a "para": <para>some text</para>
The day was chaired by Prof. Duncan Lawson and opened with a debate, in which Prof. Alexandre Bor... more The day was chaired by Prof. Duncan Lawson and opened with a debate, in which Prof. Alexandre Borovik of University of Manchester proposed and Jon McLoone of Wolfram Research opposed the motion: 'We believe that memory, subject knowledge and technical fluency remain vital for undergraduate mathematicians in the digital age'. Following this, breakout groups discussed the topics: 'We can't let them graduate unless... '; 'If maths students can't communicate in writing or speak in public-is that my problem?'; and 'If most maths graduates "aren't confident" in handling unfamiliar problems-should we care?' After lunch the Summit received feedback from the morning discussions and an update on employer engagement activity from the Mathematical Sciences Strand by David Youdan. The Summit heard and discussed presentations from Prof. Jeremy Levesley on 'Taking control of the assessment agenda' and Dr. Neil Challis on 'What do the students think about their Maths degrees?' A final set of breakout sessions considered the topic: 'Imagine there is £100k-£150k in total available to support curriculum development across the sector, how best should this be targeted and what are the priority areas?' These final discussion groups produced a list of recommendations for prioritising curriculum development. Reports of the debate and discussion sessions as well as reports by Levesley and Challis on their presentations are available in a report via the MSOR website [1]. The recommendations from the Summit were taken into project briefs in our third call for funding from the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Fund. The focus of this section of Connections is on the recommendations made in the final discussion sessions and the work taking place this academic year, supported by the HE Curriculum Innovation Fund as part of the National HE STEM Programme Mathematical Sciences Strand, to address these priorities.
By the time you read this we will have held the review panel for projects in the Third Call for F... more By the time you read this we will have held the review panel for projects in the Third Call for Funding from the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Fund. This funding looks to address the priorities for curriculum development identified at the HE Mathematics Curriculum Summit in January (the report of the Summit can now be downloaded from www.mathstore.ac.uk/hestem). This funding call was widely publicised between March and May and promoted via meetings in each of the six regions in England and Wales of the National HE STEM Programme. I am very pleased with the response of the community to this call, with around one third of those universities in England and Wales offering degrees in mathematics being involved in bids.
Noel-Ann Bradshaw's method for allocation of students to groups involves asking students to form ... more Noel-Ann Bradshaw's method for allocation of students to groups involves asking students to form small groups themselves which the lecturer pairs up to make large groups based on his or her knowledge of the students involved. This is a compromise between self-selected and lecturer-or randomly-assigned group allocation methods. The former is preferred by students, while the latter is perhaps more realistic of team work in employment. A modification to Bradshaw's method is proposed for circumstances when the lecturer does not know the students. This asks the small groups to perform a formative task with audio recording, to produce an outline (not word-for-word) transcript indicating group interactions and to reflect on group dynamics in discussion with the lecturer. This provides the lecturer with rich information about how the small groups operated, which can be used to pair the small groups to form large groups. It also provides the students with a formative learning experience and encourages the development of understanding and articulation of skills in relation to group work. A detailed description is given of the method used along with student feedback and lecturer reflection. The conclusion is broadly positive, with suggestions for minor changes to improve the method.
In SVG a polygon can be specified using the polygon tag with the attribute points listing the coo... more In SVG a polygon can be specified using the polygon tag with the attribute points listing the coordinates of the vertices, e.g.:
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2021
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching of programming for undergraduate mathematicians was mo... more During the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching of programming for undergraduate mathematicians was moved online. This was delivered asynchronously, with students working through notes and exercises and asking for help from staff via online messages as needed. Staff delivery time was redirected from content delivery into a formal system of formative assessment, which replaced informal discussion and feedback during in-person classes. Formative tasks were submitted and feedback was provided via GitHub Classroom. Students were broadly positive about the formative feedback system and mixed about the need for live delivery. Formal formative feedback highlighted that students may hold incorrect views about the accuracy of task completion, making formal formative submission an effective use of staff delivery time.
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2020
A partially-automated method of assessment is proposed, in which automated question setting is us... more A partially-automated method of assessment is proposed, in which automated question setting is used to generate individualized versions of a coursework assignment, which is completed by students and marked by hand. This is designed to be (a) comparable to a traditional written coursework assignment in validity, in that complex and open-ended tasks can be set with diverse submission formats that would not be suitable for written examination or automated marking; and, (b) comparable to e-assessment in terms of reduction of academic misconduct, with individualization acting as a barrier to copying and collusion. This method of assessment is implemented in practice. Evaluation focuses on expert second-marking, student feedback and analysis of marks, and aims to establish that the partially-automated method can be useful in practice. The partially-automated method proposed appears to be capable of adapting a coursework assignment to make it less sensitive to copying and collusion (and therefore more reliable) while maintaining its validity, though leading to reduced efficiency for the marker. This paper therefore contributes the introduction of a novel approach to assessment which offers a way to bring automated individualization to the assessment of higher order skills in higher education mathematics.
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2019
A literature review establishes a working definition of recreational mathematics: a type of play ... more A literature review establishes a working definition of recreational mathematics: a type of play which is enjoyable and requires mathematical thinking or skills to engage with. Typically, it is accessible to a wide range of people and can be effectively used to motivate engagement with and develop understanding of mathematical ideas or concepts. Recreational mathematics can be used in education for engagement and to develop mathematical skills, to maintain interest during procedural practice and to challenge and stretch students. It can also make cross-curricular links, including to history of mathematics. In undergraduate study, it can be used for engagement within standard curricula and for extra-curricular interest. Beyond this, there are opportunities to develop important graduate-level skills in problem-solving and communication. The development of a module ‘Game Theory and Recreational Mathematics’ is discussed. This provides an opportunity for fun and play, while developing graduate skills. It teaches some combinatorics, graph theory, game theory and algorithms/complexity, as well as scaffolding a Pólya-style problem-solving process. Assessment of problem-solving as a process via examination is outlined. Student feedback gives some indication that students appreciate the aims of the module, benefit from the explicit focus on problem-solving and understand the active nature of the learning.
Part of the 'Review a legacy resource' feature, this article offers a review of the wiki ... more Part of the 'Review a legacy resource' feature, this article offers a review of the wiki created by the project Industrial Problem Solving for Higher Education (IPSHE), which offers a collection of mathematics project briefs inspired by industrial collaborations suitable for all undergraduate levels. This article provides a brief overview of the IPSHE resource.
Over recent decades, our community has operated numerous projects and produced countless resource... more Over recent decades, our community has operated numerous projects and produced countless resources. Certainly some of these were of their time and are now of limited value, but many still offer huge potential for those engaged with teaching, learning, assessment and support in higher education mathematics, statistics and OR. However, projects that are no longer running may not be in a position to advertise their resources, so how will people discover them? I write to propose a new feature in MSOR Connections that would offer short reviews of legacy resources. These could be resources for use with students or teaching practice guides. The aim is to shine a light on little-used, perhaps-forgotten but good-quality resources produced under now-defunct projects.
To inform discussion about content for the first year of undergraduate mathematics, a study was c... more To inform discussion about content for the first year of undergraduate mathematics, a study was completed which reviewed: the A-level Mathematics specification; published literature on the transition from A-level to university mathematics; the second and third year curricula of modules at three English universities with different foci. This aimed to investigate what students might reasonably be expected to have covered when they arrive at university, what happens in practice at the transition to university, and the role of the first year as preparation for later study. Content suggestions focus on calculus, linear algebra and analysis as core topics. There is also evidence of the need to focus on students' understanding of where formulae and solutions originated as well as their ability to produce pieces of academic and mathematical writing. Findings also include suggestion that what happens in the first year, while similar between institutions, does depend on the overall focus ...
BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, 2014
The unplanned impact of mathematics' refers to mathematics which has an impact that was not plann... more The unplanned impact of mathematics' refers to mathematics which has an impact that was not planned by its originator, either as pure maths that finds an application or applied maths that finds an unexpected one. This aspect of mathematics has serious implications when increasingly researchers are asked to predict the impact of their research before it is funded and research quality is measured partly by its short term impact. A session on this topic has been used in a UK undergraduate mathematics module that aims to consider topics in the history of mathematics and examine how maths interacts with wider society. First, this introduced the 'unplanned impact' concept through historical examples. Second, it provoked discussion of the concept through a fictionalised blog comments discussion thread giving different views on the development and utility of mathematics. Finally, a mock research funding activity encouraged a pragmatic view of how research funding is planned and funded. The unplanned impact concept and the structure and content of the taught session are described.
The world of XML is filled with acronyms and jargon. This article aims to give a brief summary of... more The world of XML is filled with acronyms and jargon. This article aims to give a brief summary of some XML formats that may be useful or interesting. XML XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language [1]. Readers who know a little HTML may benefit from the statement 'XML is like HTML where you can make your own tags' (almost true; see below on XHTML). For those who don't, XML uses tags to enclose text giving it particular meaning. For instance, the following is some text marked as a "para": <para>some text</para>
The day was chaired by Prof. Duncan Lawson and opened with a debate, in which Prof. Alexandre Bor... more The day was chaired by Prof. Duncan Lawson and opened with a debate, in which Prof. Alexandre Borovik of University of Manchester proposed and Jon McLoone of Wolfram Research opposed the motion: 'We believe that memory, subject knowledge and technical fluency remain vital for undergraduate mathematicians in the digital age'. Following this, breakout groups discussed the topics: 'We can't let them graduate unless... '; 'If maths students can't communicate in writing or speak in public-is that my problem?'; and 'If most maths graduates "aren't confident" in handling unfamiliar problems-should we care?' After lunch the Summit received feedback from the morning discussions and an update on employer engagement activity from the Mathematical Sciences Strand by David Youdan. The Summit heard and discussed presentations from Prof. Jeremy Levesley on 'Taking control of the assessment agenda' and Dr. Neil Challis on 'What do the students think about their Maths degrees?' A final set of breakout sessions considered the topic: 'Imagine there is £100k-£150k in total available to support curriculum development across the sector, how best should this be targeted and what are the priority areas?' These final discussion groups produced a list of recommendations for prioritising curriculum development. Reports of the debate and discussion sessions as well as reports by Levesley and Challis on their presentations are available in a report via the MSOR website [1]. The recommendations from the Summit were taken into project briefs in our third call for funding from the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Fund. The focus of this section of Connections is on the recommendations made in the final discussion sessions and the work taking place this academic year, supported by the HE Curriculum Innovation Fund as part of the National HE STEM Programme Mathematical Sciences Strand, to address these priorities.
By the time you read this we will have held the review panel for projects in the Third Call for F... more By the time you read this we will have held the review panel for projects in the Third Call for Funding from the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Fund. This funding looks to address the priorities for curriculum development identified at the HE Mathematics Curriculum Summit in January (the report of the Summit can now be downloaded from www.mathstore.ac.uk/hestem). This funding call was widely publicised between March and May and promoted via meetings in each of the six regions in England and Wales of the National HE STEM Programme. I am very pleased with the response of the community to this call, with around one third of those universities in England and Wales offering degrees in mathematics being involved in bids.
Noel-Ann Bradshaw's method for allocation of students to groups involves asking students to form ... more Noel-Ann Bradshaw's method for allocation of students to groups involves asking students to form small groups themselves which the lecturer pairs up to make large groups based on his or her knowledge of the students involved. This is a compromise between self-selected and lecturer-or randomly-assigned group allocation methods. The former is preferred by students, while the latter is perhaps more realistic of team work in employment. A modification to Bradshaw's method is proposed for circumstances when the lecturer does not know the students. This asks the small groups to perform a formative task with audio recording, to produce an outline (not word-for-word) transcript indicating group interactions and to reflect on group dynamics in discussion with the lecturer. This provides the lecturer with rich information about how the small groups operated, which can be used to pair the small groups to form large groups. It also provides the students with a formative learning experience and encourages the development of understanding and articulation of skills in relation to group work. A detailed description is given of the method used along with student feedback and lecturer reflection. The conclusion is broadly positive, with suggestions for minor changes to improve the method.
This paper describes changes made to a first year mathematics module to attempt to improve opport... more This paper describes changes made to a first year mathematics module to attempt to improve opportunities for communication between the lecturer and students. The work is in progress and the paper focuses on describing the changes and the reasons they were made.
This research explored assessment and e-assessment in undergraduate mathematics and prop... more This research explored assessment and e-assessment in undergraduate mathematics and proposed a novel, partially-automated approach, in which assessment is set via computer but completed and marked offline. This potentially offers: reduced efficiency of marking but increased validity compared with examination, via deeper and more open-ended questions; increased reliability compared with coursework, by reduction of plagiarism through individualised questions; increased efficiency for setting questions compared with e-assessment, as there is no need to second-guess the limitations of user input and automated marking. Implementation was in a final year module intended to develop students’ graduate skills, including group work and real-world problem-solving. Individual work alongside a group project aimed to assess individual contribution to learning outcomes. The deeper, open-ended nature of the task did not suit timed examination conditions or automated marking, but the similarity of the individual and group tasks meant the risk of plagiarism was high. Evaluation took three forms: a second-marker experiment, to test reliability and assess validity; student feedback, to examine student views particularly about plagiarism and individualised assessment; and, comparison of marks, to investigate plagiarism. This paper will discuss the development and evaluation of this assessment approach in an undergraduate mathematics context.
Proceedings of Annual Learning and Teaching Conference "Student Transitions"
Individual work alongside group work – to test individual contribution to subject-specific aspect... more Individual work alongside group work – to test individual contribution to subject-specific aspects – is particularly open to plagiarism, suggesting randomised questions; but aiming to develop graduate skills suits open-ended questions which cannot be marked by computer. A partially-automated assessment approach is developed, trialled and evaluated.
This case-study session will detail how the mathematics department at Greenwich hosted the first ... more This case-study session will detail how the mathematics department at Greenwich hosted the first ever Mathematics Undergraduate Conference - Tomorrow's Mathematicians Today (TMT) in February 2010 with support from Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA). This work has been published in issue 4 of the University's Teaching and Learning Journal: Compass. The conference was attended by over 100 undergraduates from over 20 institutions, with 30 student speakers from universities as far-flung as Aberdeen and Exeter and as different as Oxford and London Met.
The aim of this session is to encourage participants from a wide variety of disciplines to use the model presented to develop and instigate other subject-specific undergraduate conferences. Speaking at and attending conferences like this help students develop key graduate attributes such as:
Being able to think independently, analytically and creatively, and engage imaginatively with new areas of investigation.
Obtaining knowledge of the process of research and the meaning of scholarship.
Becoming fluent and articulate in oral communication, in ways that are tailored to different audiences.
There are many ways in which technology can be used to benefit students in mathematical sciences ... more There are many ways in which technology can be used to benefit students in mathematical sciences HE teaching and learning that you may wish to explore during your academic career. However, there are also ways in which technology can be misused, or a lot of effort can be undertaken to little or no benefit. This talk discusses developments in HE curriculum particularly relating to technology in teaching, drawing on examples from work funded by the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Project, and discusses the process of determining when innovations are needed and whether they are effective.
There are many issues in mathematical sciences HE teaching and learning that, if you are just set... more There are many issues in mathematical sciences HE teaching and learning that, if you are just setting out on an academic career or hoping to, you will need to address during your time as a lecturer. A lively discussion considered mathematics HE teaching and what might be expected from graduates of mathematics degrees. The talk gave developments - recently undertaken or that may be needed - in HE curriculum, drawing on examples from work funded by the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Project, including from a high level Summit convened in January 2011 to discuss priorities in curriculum development in HE mathematical sciences. Details are given of a £150,000 funding call for curriculum innovation projects in mathematical sciences which is currently open to bids.
Findings of a study investigating the views of users and non-users of e-assessment systems at a v... more Findings of a study investigating the views of users and non-users of e-assessment systems at a variety of universities which aimed to identify when lecturers believe e-assessment and automated feedback can have a positive effect on learning and student experience, when traditional offline assessment is preferred, and why.
"Problem Solving" is a second year BSc (Hons) Mathematics module aimed at developing mathematical... more "Problem Solving" is a second year BSc (Hons) Mathematics module aimed at developing mathematical and transferable skills and not based around a particular topic.
Some literature was reviewed in relation to transferable skills and what group projects and self-motivated learning can achieve in skills development. This review was used to inform the design of a group project task based around independent student research.
The project task involved students working in groups to research a mathematical topic and using these findings to solve a series of set problems. Students were given skills development sessions on finding and using references, giving presentations and writing reports. An indicative initial reading list was given as a starting point but, apart from the skills development sessions, there was no formal teaching material. Students were required to research the topic independently to answer a set of problems, then to explore the topic more broadly in a direction of their choosing to propose an extension of the original problem. Their findings were presented in a fully referenced report and in a presentation to peers.
The topic chosen was Art Gallery Problems, problems of determining the number of guards needed to keep every point in a room under surveillance. These are pure mathematics problems using a real world context for inspiration but not intended to be applicable. This means the simplifying assumptions allow plenty of room for students to explore the limitations and possible extensions of the theory.
Undergraduate mathematicians are logical problem solvers but can tend towards more formal teaching scenarios and can lack skills around communication and group working. This task was intended to address module learning outcomes around working in groups, using reference information and communication using reports and presentations. In addition the task was designed to encourage critical evaluation of a mathematical model and communication of mathematical ideas to audiences of differing mathematical abilities. The model of independent student reseach - unusual in mathematics teaching - fitted very well with these module learning outcomes.
This talk will outline the literature findings and the design of the group project task and associated assessment. Results from a student evalutation are used to provide an evaluation of the teaching.
George Green was an "almost entirely self-taught mathematical genius" (NM Ferrers, 1871) whose w... more George Green was an "almost entirely self-taught mathematical genius" (NM Ferrers, 1871) whose work was a major influence on the mathematical physics of the 19th and 20th centuries and shows no signs of stopping in the 21st. But from where or from whom did Green learn his mathematics? Peter Rowlett from Nottingham Trent University surveys Green's education in Nottingham and Cambridge and those who influenced him. Recorded 12 November 2014.
This event encourages teachers to engage with their local STEM Ambassador programme and encourage... more This event encourages teachers to engage with their local STEM Ambassador programme and encourages new STEM Ambassadors to offer activities. I spoke about our stall at the East Midlands Big Bang STEM Fair 2011.
This talk, at a workshop about lecture recording, gave some examples of how this technology has b... more This talk, at a workshop about lecture recording, gave some examples of how this technology has been used and examined the literature on whether (or when) making lecture recordings available is effective or beneficial to students.
Watching the sky, you can see the Sun, moon, planets and stars moving above Earth. It is very int... more Watching the sky, you can see the Sun, moon, planets and stars moving above Earth. It is very intuitive to imagine that you are standing still and the objects you are observing are moving above you and this was the view taken by geocentric models of the cosmos. A Greek model, which was dominant in many parts of the world for hundreds of years, had a spherical Earth at the centre of the universe, with the other heavenly bodies orbiting in perfect circles. This talk will outline problems and challenges to this model, and the developments which followed, through the theory of Copernicus, mathematical treatments by Kepler and Newton and questions of what drives planetary motion.
"Cryptography is the process by which messages are communicated through secret means. Cipher cryp... more "Cryptography is the process by which messages are communicated through secret means. Cipher cryptography converts messages by applying some cipher algorithm with a secret key to a plaintext message, converting it into a ciphertext message that cannot be read by interceptors. Cryptanalysis is the science that attempts to decipher these messages without access to the secret key.
This talk will focus on substitution ciphers and demonstrate the processes of encrypting and breaking some examples of these. The focus is on the battle between cryptographers - who create cipher systems - and cryptanalysts - who attempt to break them. As cryptanalysis develops more ingenious ciphers must be created and this constant struggle evolves from Roman generals, through the Golden Age of Islam to political intrigue in Renaissance Europe.
This talk will provide a gentle introduction and will assume no prior knowledge of cryptography."
An Electronic Voting System (or Audience Participation System, or ...) is familiar if you have wa... more An Electronic Voting System (or Audience Participation System, or ...) is familiar if you have watched Who Wants to be a Millionaire as the "Ask the Audience" lifeline. Each audience member is given a small box with digits 0-9 on and multiple choice questions are displayed on screen with results appearing instantaneously. Some analysis of the data is available. The lack of need for a "show of hands" and the fact everyone votes before the result appears may produce more honest results and a greater degree of participation from students. That the results appear on screen instantaneously and are recorded for later analysis has an advantage over, say, the OMR forms. I will talk a little about use of the technology elsewhere and give a demo of what this technology can do and how to use it.
I was involved with a Maths Promoters' Network day on "Using New Technologies".
I introduced t... more I was involved with a Maths Promoters' Network day on "Using New Technologies".
This talk covered methods for teaching mathematics - chalk and talk and OHP slides to PowerPoint ... more This talk covered methods for teaching mathematics - chalk and talk and OHP slides to PowerPoint and interactive whiteboards. Following this was a demonstration of the features of an interactive whiteboard and a chance for the audience to have a go with one themselves. View video: http://www.elms.org.uk/previous/dec2008
Recording lectures: Two different experiences of recording lectures. At Nottingham Joel Feinstein... more Recording lectures: Two different experiences of recording lectures. At Nottingham Joel Feinstein takes a tablet PC with recording equipment into his mathematics lectures and records using this portable kit. At Newcastle, Phil Ansell uses a built-in system in lecture rooms to record his statistics lectures. Both describe their approach and students' responses. Producing supplementary teaching and learning material: Three experiences in creating supplementary content. Mark McCartney at University of Ulster uses a smartpen to record solutions and commentary on mathematics assignment problems and to provide summaries of material covered in lectures. He discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the smartpen. Paul Hernandez-Martinez at Loughborough University uses one smartpen to record mathematics exercise solutions and another as a substitute for the whiteboard to present examples in Recordings of students for assessment and feedback: Rob Kearsley Bullen (Nottingham Trent University) uses a smartpen to record his notes during lessons given by mathematics trainee teachers and so is able to offer enhanced feedback. Michèle Clarke and Claire Chambers (University of Nottingham) describe how geography students produce videos for assessment and the skills they gain by doing so. Claire Chambers also describes the use of media in capturing the experience of geography field work. Making use of recordings: A final section considers the use of recordings; how students use recordings and the effect these have on student learning. This includes two reports from another project supported by MSOR Network as part of the National HE STEM Programme, 'The Internet Librarian and Curator of Mathematics Videos' by Trevor Hawkes, Coventry University. This project attempted to develop a system for curating the vast quantity of unsorted videos of mixed quality available on the Internet. One report gives the implementation of the project and the other gives a framework for evaluation of video tutorials in mathematics, considering mathematical, pedagogical and technical quality.
All stakeholders in Higher Education are increasingly aware of the importance attached to the add... more All stakeholders in Higher Education are increasingly aware of the importance attached to the additional skills students should be gaining at University, over and above their course-specific skills. Students are concerned, particularly with the large rises in tuition fees, whether courses will provide them with the full range of skills necessary to successfully gain graduate level employment. It is clear, particularly from University open days, that prospective applicants are very aware of the new measures by which they can judge the performance both of Universities and of individual programmes, such as the National Student Survey, the Destination for Leavers from Higher Education survey of graduate employment, the Key Information Sets and the various league tables, as published for example by the Guardian and the Times. In what is certain to be a very competitive student recruitment 'marketplace' there will be considerable importance attached by each university and by each course to presenting a When designing a programme of study, academic staff must first articulate the type of graduate they are aiming for-which leads formally to a set of programme learning outcomes. In order to determine these learning outcomes, the views of the relevant stakeholders must be sought. These include relevant employers-some of whom may be alumni of the department-who can advise on what skills they have found useful in their career so far.
Recording lectures: Two different experiences of recording lectures. At Nottingham Joel Feinstein... more Recording lectures: Two different experiences of recording lectures. At Nottingham Joel Feinstein takes a tablet PC with recording equipment into his mathematics lectures and records using this portable kit. At Newcastle, Phil Ansell uses a built-in system in lecture rooms to record his statistics lectures. Both describe their approach and students' responses. Producing supplementary teaching and learning material: Three experiences in creating supplementary content. Mark McCartney at University of Ulster uses a smartpen to record solutions and commentary on mathematics assignment problems and to provide summaries of material covered in lectures. He discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the smartpen. Paul Hernandez-Martinez at Loughborough University uses one smartpen to record mathematics exercise solutions and another as a substitute for the whiteboard to present examples in Recordings of students for assessment and feedback: Rob Kearsley Bullen (Nottingham Trent University) uses a smartpen to record his notes during lessons given by mathematics trainee teachers and so is able to offer enhanced feedback. Michèle Clarke and Claire Chambers (University of Nottingham) describe how geography students produce videos for assessment and the skills they gain by doing so. Claire Chambers also describes the use of media in capturing the experience of geography field work. Making use of recordings: A final section considers the use of recordings; how students use recordings and the effect these have on student learning. This includes two reports from another project supported by MSOR Network as part of the National HE STEM Programme, 'The Internet Librarian and Curator of Mathematics Videos' by Trevor Hawkes, Coventry University. This project attempted to develop a system for curating the vast quantity of unsorted videos of mixed quality available on the Internet. One report gives the implementation of the project and the other gives a framework for evaluation of video tutorials in mathematics, considering mathematical, pedagogical and technical quality.
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Papers by Peter Rowlett
The aim of this session is to encourage participants from a wide variety of disciplines to use the model presented to develop and instigate other subject-specific undergraduate conferences. Speaking at and attending conferences like this help students develop key graduate attributes such as:
Being able to think independently, analytically and creatively, and engage imaginatively with new areas of investigation.
Obtaining knowledge of the process of research and the meaning of scholarship.
Becoming fluent and articulate in oral communication, in ways that are tailored to different audiences.
Some literature was reviewed in relation to transferable skills and what group projects and self-motivated learning can achieve in skills development. This review was used to inform the design of a group project task based around independent student research.
The project task involved students working in groups to research a mathematical topic and using these findings to solve a series of set problems. Students were given skills development sessions on finding and using references, giving presentations and writing reports. An indicative initial reading list was given as a starting point but, apart from the skills development sessions, there was no formal teaching material. Students were required to research the topic independently to answer a set of problems, then to explore the topic more broadly in a direction of their choosing to propose an extension of the original problem. Their findings were presented in a fully referenced report and in a presentation to peers.
The topic chosen was Art Gallery Problems, problems of determining the number of guards needed to keep every point in a room under surveillance. These are pure mathematics problems using a real world context for inspiration but not intended to be applicable. This means the simplifying assumptions allow plenty of room for students to explore the limitations and possible extensions of the theory.
Undergraduate mathematicians are logical problem solvers but can tend towards more formal teaching scenarios and can lack skills around communication and group working. This task was intended to address module learning outcomes around working in groups, using reference information and communication using reports and presentations. In addition the task was designed to encourage critical evaluation of a mathematical model and communication of mathematical ideas to audiences of differing mathematical abilities. The model of independent student reseach - unusual in mathematics teaching - fitted very well with these module learning outcomes.
This talk will outline the literature findings and the design of the group project task and associated assessment. Results from a student evalutation are used to provide an evaluation of the teaching.
This talk will focus on substitution ciphers and demonstrate the processes of encrypting and breaking some examples of these. The focus is on the battle between cryptographers - who create cipher systems - and cryptanalysts - who attempt to break them. As cryptanalysis develops more ingenious ciphers must be created and this constant struggle evolves from Roman generals, through the Golden Age of Islam to political intrigue in Renaissance Europe.
This talk will provide a gentle introduction and will assume no prior knowledge of cryptography."
I introduced the day and contributed to sessions on social networking and podcasting. You can read about this in a blog post summary of this day I wrote: http://travelsinamathematicalworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/maths-promotion-and-new-technologies.html. Matt Parker assisted me with a live podcast recording, which can be heard in episode 31 of the Travels in a Mathematical World podcast: http://podcast.travelsinamathematicalworld.co.uk/mp3/IMA_TiaMW_31-Matt_Parker_Maths_communication.mp3.