University of Turin: Strong and Wide Use of Maple T.A. to Better Prepare High School Students for University

MARINA MARCHIS IO, AL ICE BARANA

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

UNIVERS ITY OF TURIN

E-learning and interactive teachingat universityThe Faculty of Sciences of the University of Turin started in 2007 the Project “E-learning and interactive teaching”, aimed to extend the e-learning services offered by the Faculty to all its students and in particular to enrich the traditional teaching of Mathematics with the new technologies.

One of the highlights of this project has been the use of the Maplesoft Suite of products (Maple, MapleNet, Maple T.A.), making them the “core” of the preparation and distribution of the didactic material. Maplesoft products were made available mainly within the open source e-learning platform “Moodle”, widely adopted in Italian Universities.

E-learning and interactive teachingat university

The University of Turin developed the integration of Moodle with Maple Net and worked on theintegration of Moodle with Maple T.A. in order to adapt it to the necessities of its courses.

In particular the integration allows:

The correspondence of each Moodle course with a Maple T.A. class, which can be automaticallycreated by the teacher of the course.

The automated registration of all Moodle course participants to the associated class. No otherregistration to Maple T.A. is required.

A link to the Maple T.A. class homepage is available in the Moodle course, teachers can add Maple T.A. assignments on the course page as an activity and students can access the gradebook directly from the course.

E-learning and interactive teaching at university

The teacher can access the Maple T.A. class from Moodleand he can add assignmentsin the course sections

E-learning and interactive teaching at university

In particular the adoption of Maple T.A. as a testing tool had a positive impact on the students’ results, since the rates of failure considerably decreased.

Maple T.A. is used in two ways:

to prepare tests freely available to students for self-evaluation. This is greatly appreciated by students, since they can now practice the assignments many times, receive evaluations and feedbacks, as well as compare their incorrect answers with the correct ones;

in the official examinations. Students do proctored assignments within the Moodle course homepage.

Owning a considerable experience and motivated by the success among its students, the Department of Mathematics of University of Turin was invited to collaborate with other institutions in order to diffuse the good practice of automated assessment also in the secondary school throughseveral projects.

With the Town of TurinProject ‘‘The Homework School’’In 2013 the Town of Turin launched a big project, called “The Homework School”, aimed to reduce the drop-out rates.

Surveys reveal that people dropping out school before graduation mainly encountered difficulties in Math, Italian and Foreign Languages.

Supporting students in learning these subjects at the age of 14-15, when they are close to the completion of compulsory instruction, could be an effective way to prevent them from leaving school.

With the Town of TurinProject ‘‘The Homework School’’

Organization of The Homework School:

30 secondary schools

courses of Maths and Scientific Subjects, Italian and Foreign Languages, directed to groups of 5 or 6 students with low marks (4-5 out of 10)

lessons of 2 hours in the afternoon, after school classes, held by selected and trained university students, in a peer-to-peer approach

Experimental Math courses held in a computer lab and with the use of Moodle integrated with the suite Maple

The Homework SchoolThe Moodle site

Maple T.A. at The Homework SchoolAfter each class the tutor provides students with an assignment prepared with Maple T.A.

Students, at home, can practice with a high number of questions

The automated grading system and the immediate feedbacks allow students to recognize the contents which have not been understood.

At the same time the instructor can verify if all the contents have been effectively mastered and decides if some parts need to be reviewed.

Maple T.A. at The Homework School

Maple Worksheets and Maple T.A. assignments in a Moodle course

NumbersAfter the first edition of the project, which took place in Spring 2013, a survey has been conducted among school students, school teachers, and university tutors. The project involved:

30 schools

1175 students

120 tutors

235 courses

75 Math courses, 43 of which conducted with the experimental use of the suite Maple.

Survey’s resultsThe survey’s results show a clear success of the project. An increase in the following values (in mean, in a scale out of 5) has been observed:

Self-confidence: from 2,76 to 3,96

Interest towards the subject: from 2,95 to 3,83

Diligence in homework: from 2,8 to 3,6

Participation in classes: from 3,1 to 3,8

Knowledge of the subject: from 2,6 to 3,7

Traditional Math vs. Experimental MathAfter a comparison between the evaluations related to the Math courses which used Maple T.A. for the assessment and those held in a traditional way, we can infer that the former are considered more successful.

Didactic material, tutors’ teaching and classes in general have been more appreciated by school students in a statistically significant way.

The evaluations related to motivation, self-confidence, competences, interest for the subject at the end of the project are significantly higher for students who attended the experimental courses then the traditional ones.

Traditional Math vs. Experimental MathLevel of self-confidence at the end of the project:

Comparison between Traditional (M) and Experimental (MS) Math courses

Further considerations

The adoption of new technologies, which are familiar to the students, makes them feel comfortable and reason with tranquility.

The neutral role of the computer eliminates the obstacles originated from the figure of the teacher, who can be seen as an antagonist by the teenager, thus badly affecting the learning.

Using technologies not only makes learning easier, but also creates a positive and activeattitude, which consists of an essential basis for building competences.

Working in Moodle arouses the feeling of belonging to a community, extends the learningactivity to informal moments and reinforces the team spirit, determinant for the educative process.

Project Problem Posing and SolvingIn 2012 Italian Ministry of Education, Research and University (MIUR) started an strong action of innovation to upper secondary education. The traditional ‘‘programs specified by the Ministry’’ were transformed into national Guidelines for high schools, technical schools and vocational organizations.

In this context the Project PP&S was born. Its main goals include strengthening computer science culture, founding education processes on interleaved Logic, Mathematics and Computer Science; building a culture of "Problem posing and solving", ensuring growth of computer science-based training of trainers, adopting a significant amount of social networks activity and virtual learning environment, sharing learning materials.

The partners of the project are the Italian Association for Automatic Computing (AICA), the National Research Center (CNR), the National Industrial Unions, the University of Turin and the Politecnico of Turin.

PP&S ProjectUpper secondary school teachers of Mathematics, Computer Science and other ScientificDisciplines have access to a platform Moodle integrated with MapleNet and Maple T.A. with theirclasses:

900 active teachers

1200 teachers in training

2000 courses

12000 students

In 2014-15 numbers are expected to grow rapidly.

PP&S ProjectMoodle homepage

PP&S ProjectTeachers receive a training on the use of the suite Maple in presence and within Moodle, and are asked to adopt these tools in the preparation of the didactic material and in their classes. They are supposed to hold lessons in a computer lab.

Maple T.A. is used in two different moments:

1. During the training and the cooperation among teachers

2. Each teacher adopts Maple T.A. in the assessment within its courses.

PP&S ProjectThe Maple T.A. teacher training consists of three different steps.

1. A three-hours lesson introduces them to the basics of Maple T.A., the creation of simplequestions and assignments, the search in the gradebook. The introductive lesson can be heldeither in presence or online by means of a web-conference tool within Moodle (Adobe Connect), which allows to share the voice, the desktop and a chat.

2. A tutor is available weekly, for two different hours, in a web meeting, and offers a support attwo different levels (base and advanced) with the use of Maple T.A.

3. A forum is used for an asynchronous tutoring. Teachers can post their questions, and tutors or collegues answer them.

PP&S ProjectMoodle course for Maple T.A. training

PP&S ProjectWeb Meeting with Adobe Connect. A tutor is showing how to create a question with Maple T.A.

PP&S Project

Discussion in a forum

PP&S ProjectTeachers often don’t have competences in Informatics and Computer Science, and at the beginnig sometimes they find difficulties in:

writing the right grading code in Maple-graded questions;

defining variables and plots in the Algorithm using the correct syntax;

working with Java and the equation editor;

the interface, which is not really user-friendly.

BUT working inside the Moodle community of all teachers under the supervision of the tutors means practise cooperation and collaboration with colleagues and tutors and hence find an immediate support to win the difficulties.

Forums and databases allow them to share experiences, new ideas and the created questions.

Belonging to a community is essential to carry on the Project with their classes.

PP&S ProjectTeachers use Maple T.A. for assessment purpose in their classes, in different steps of the course.

To verify the initial competences of their students at the beginning of the course.

To monitor the learning process, preparing assignments that students can do as homework and in preparation of the final test. Students can access the assignments from the Moodle page athome. Study Session Dialogs are useful to offer a training of exercises in preparation of a classtest, but the assignment type Homework or Quiz is preferred because results are registered and the teacher can easily control the comprehension of the contents.

For the summative assessment, in the school labs, often using the proctor modality. Here Italianteachers encounter a problem. Italian laws impose that all written tests must be signed and conserved in the school secretery in paper format. Accordingly, it would be useful if there shouldbe the possibility of downloading the detailed results of the assignments in pdf format from the gradebook. This option is not currently available in Maple T.A.

PP&S Project

The Moodle Courseof a teacher

PP&S ProjectIn Italian secondary school students must reach the sufficience in each subject at the end of the school year. If a student has a low mark, he is offered the possibility of attending a summercourse and substaining an exam in September in order to be admitted to the next class.

Last summer teachers of PP&S Project organized Summer courses with Moodle. Students had to complete weekly Maple T.A. assignments according to a scheduled revision program.

Also final examinations were given with Maple T.A.

Students and teachers appreciated very much the use of Maple T.A.

Teacher training

- Villafranca (VR) – November 2012- Pescara – June 2013- Roma – September 2013- Chiavenna (SO) – February 2014- Biella – March 2014- Novara – March 2014- Torino – April 2014- Modena – April 2014- Parma – May 2014- Castellanza (VB) – May 2014- Voghera (PV) – May 2014

- Cesena (FC) – May 2014- Rimini – May 2014- Ravenna – May 2014- Milano – May 2014 - Viadana (MN) – September 2014- Lecco – October 2014- Cantù (CM) – October 2014- Civitavecchia (RM) - October 2014- Cassino (FR) - October 2014- Frassati (RM) - October 2014- Lamezia Terme (CZ) – October 2014

In the last 2 years University of Turin have organized training sessions in about 25 Italian cities. More then 1000 high school teachers from all parts of Italy were introduced to the use

of Maple T.A. by a team of 12 tutors.

Teacher trainingMaple T.A. is not easy to use. But we don’t let teachers think so.

In all training sessions Maple T.A. is presented as useful and simple, immediate to learn, pleasent to use.

Tutors are PhD students of University of Turin. Their young age on one side motivates the teachers, who are enthusiast of young people bringing innovation to school; on the other side let them feel free of asking fon any doubt.

At the beginning of a training session the trainers show an assignment which contains all the main potentialities of the system: graphics, algorithmical parameters, hints and feedbacks, Maple-graded and adaptive questions, and so on.

Teacher training

Clickable questions are attractive

Complicated mathematical formulas are accepted

Teacher training

Graphics can be easily added and they can also depend on algorithmic parameters

Teacher trainingNumeric questions accept all base and derived units with their equivalence

Maple-graded questions with the plot of the student’s response

Teacher training

Adaptive questions, feedbacks, hints assure a great flexibility.

Teacher trainingDuring the training teachers are guided to the creation of their first questions. Questions for the training are carefully chosen: quick to create, but meaningful and ready to be used in their classes.

Trainiers stress the facility of cloning and editing questions, adding algorithmical parameters in order to create a big number of different questions in few steps.

After about an hour their question repository will contain six or seven interesting questions about a common topic, such as functions, or analitic geometry. They can immediately public the first assignment for their students.

If the first impact with Maple T.A. is positive, teachers are attracted to use it and any difficulty they might find later will be a challenge.

Resources available in platformTutors constantly help teachers in their work with Maple T.ABrowsing the forums solutions for every kind of necessity can be found:

Grading codes for every response type

Algorithms commented

step by step

Instructions for the use of all the components of

Maple T.A.

Production of questionsAfter the initial training, and with the support of the tutors and colleagues, teachers started to produce a high number of questions.

Initially they just translated in Maple T.A. the traditional exercises they had always written on paper.

Production of questions

Then they understood that Maple T.A. allows to add significance to questions.

Hence they began to edit questions and include graphics, feedbacks and explanations.

Production of questions

They prefer Maple-graded questions because they allow open response.

Using the question designer they can add other requests in order to assure the comprehension of different aspects of the problem.

Production of questions

In the summative assessment teachers need to evaluate not only the correct response, but also how the students reason to give a response. With Maple T.A. they can add an essay response area where students can motivate their response.

Production of questions

Algorithmic parameters are often used, not only in order to avoid students to cheat, but also to offer repeated exercises to practice before a class test.

Production of questions

With the help of tutors teachers have developed a table with the useful syntax for the response to inequalities. It avoids students syntax mistakes.

Production of questionsAdaptive questions are perfect to pursue the problem posing and solving approach.

A problem, not necessarily a mathematical problem, is posed and the student is let free to reason by himself. If he finds the correct solution he gains the total points.

Production of questions

Whether the student gives an incorrect response, he is guided into a procedure which step by step leads to the solution.

Production of questions

Sharing questions

Creating a new question might require much time and effort, but if, for each question created, a teacher can have 900 other questions shared, the work becomes far simpler. That is the sense of working in a community in the logic of collaborative learning.

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Sharing questions

Teacher share questions in different ways.

Through the forums: they link their «work in progress» asking to tutors an colleagues for suggestions and comments.

Sharing questions

There is a database of questions on Moodle. It is not much used, due to the inconvenience of exporting and importing .qu files, which can not be read outside Maple T.A.

Sharing questions

Teachers can visit each other course and examine assignments. This is not a way to share questions, but to share ideas, to contrast the different methods of assessment.

Sharing questions

Within Maple T.A., making questions public. This is the easiest and most popular way to share questions, as it can be done within Maple T.A.

In order to organize the public repository we asked teachers to add the field «Topic» and insert an appropriate value. In this way we can easily search and find questions of nearly 50 different topics.