HP CATALYST ASSOCIATE PROJECT

The instructional delivery at the University of KwaZulu-Natal [UKZN] is via a blended approach, namely contact lectures supplemented by online support material. We identified the lack of preparedness of many of our first year students to study university mathematics as a challenge that needs to be urgently addressed. 

Students lack basic algebraic skills and manipulation techniques of functions given in symbolic and graphical forms, that are needed to study calculus. Our team looked at pinpointing the pre-requisite mathematical knowledge and skills required to study university mathematics. 

The plan was to develop online material and support, to help students revise the relevant mathematical knowledge and skills that we expect of them to have obtained during their schooling careers. We also plan to refine and expand online assessment for students. 

These assessments will focus on [1] tasks based on the pre-requisite knowledge and skills, and [2] content studied in the relevant modules. The assessment on the former and the online material to revise the relevant mathematical knowledge and skills is generic to all our mathematics modules.

The first generic phase of the project which focused on Basic Knowledge and Skills to study university Mathematics was made available online on 1 February 2012. Notes, links, exercises and quizzes can be viewed here. 

Some of the module coordinators have built on this as can be seen here. Math131 is done by our engineering students. The team will now focus on (1) improving the website material based on feedback received from users, and (2) identifying and developing online material specific to first year mathematics modules. 

There is a need for us to develop online material for mathematics at our institution, for the different first year modules that are offered. The view of our team is that the core material for each module should be open access, to increase the benefit to others. 

The module coordinators could then incorporate the material into their module websites as indicated by this link (guest log-in). Our achievements to date are: 

You can watch a video on the project here.