Mathematics support centre attendees and their use of online resources

Bhaird, Ciarán Mac an; Mulligan, Peter; O'Malley, James

doi:10.21100/msor.v18i3.1081

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…However, there is an issue that only a fraction of the students who could use the site are aware of its existence. These findings echo those of a study into the online resources provided by the mathematics support centre at Maynooth University which showed that students who discovered the online resources found them useful, but there was an issue with advertising the resources to the wider student population (Mac an Bhaird et al, 2020). The findings from the M&S study site evaluation has resulted in the creation of a communication strategy to highlight the study site to all students studying the M&S modules, which took the form of a series of emails over the summer months.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Mathematics and statistics distance learning: more than just online teaching

Hilliam

Goldrei

Arrowsmith

et al. 2021

Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications: An International Journal of the IMA

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At the Open University, where students learn online and at a distance, the School of Mathematics and Statistics has for many years provided innovative ways of supporting students outside the ‘classroom’ environment so was well prepared to support students during the COVID-19 pandemic. These forms of support include online forums to help students with module choice and taster resources including diagnostic quizzes for students to self-assess their readiness to study individual modules and receive targeted support. Since 2017, these resources, and more, have been incorporated into a multi-functional student-facing website. The website enables all units, both academic and non-academic, to provide consistent academic, pastoral and social support to students studying mathematics and statistics modules online. By focusing on the different stages of a student’s journey, the website provides a one-stop shop for students to self-serve and obtain appropriate support at each point in their own student lifecycle. Data gathered on the frequency of use of the website, together with the results from staff and student questionnaires, have provided insight into how students and staff use the website. The evaluation highlights the need for clear signposting to such resources. In addition, the wide range of resources which enable students to make informed module choices is shown to be particularly important for staff who provide pastoral and academic support to students.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Mathematics and statistics distance learning: more than just online teaching

Hilliam

Goldrei

Arrowsmith

et al. 2021

Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications: An International Journal of the IMA

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show abstract

“…We added 13 extra questions on background and on student use of online resources in general. These are reported on in Mac an Bhaird et al (2020a). The anonymous survey was trialled by MSC tutors.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student perspectives on their engagement with a mathematics support centre website.

Bhaird¹,

Mulligan²,

O'Malley³

2020

MSOR

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“…Furthermore, students’ check of the reliability of external digital resources could play a crucial role in this context. In a small study, Mac an Bhaird et al (2020) found that only a minority of their students who use online resources ‘always’ consider the reliability of these resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

University students’ fully digital study of mathematics: an identification of student-groups via their resources usage and a characterization by personal and affective characteristics

Kempen

Liebendörfer

2021

Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications: An International Journal of the IMA

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We investigated university students’ study of mathematics in the digital setting context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We gathered data from a survey of 89 students enrolled in a ‘Linear Algebra 1’ course including affective variables, learning strategies, social relatedness and resources considered useful. The results indicate students’ high effort and self-regulation and a high variation in affective characteristics and social relatedness. All the traditional aspects of mathematics teaching (lecture, tutorials and lecture notes) were rated as particularly useful. In addition, the videos from external resources were rated as equally useful as the teaching team’s videos. In contrast, traditional literature such as textbooks was rarely considered useful. The most useful resource rated was communication with peers, underlining the important role of social learning despite fully digital learning environments. Finally, a cluster analysis based on students’ rated usefulness of the resources led to three different user-types. Whereas the ‘digitals’ find the external digital resources very useful (videos, webpages, etc.), the ‘traditionalists’ rate the digitalized traditional resources best (lecture, tutorials, etc.). All resources receive uniformly good ratings from a third group (‘all resource users’). We reflect on our findings in light of the pandemic and describe directions for future research.

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Mathematics support centre attendees and their use of online resources

Cited by 4 publications

References 4 publications

Mathematics and statistics distance learning: more than just online teaching

Mathematics and statistics distance learning: more than just online teaching

Student perspectives on their engagement with a mathematics support centre website.

University students’ fully digital study of mathematics: an identification of student-groups via their resources usage and a characterization by personal and affective characteristics

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