Discrete Mathematics with Programming

4.2 Interdisciplinary Lab Exercises
One of the key ideas was to incorporate interdisciplinary exercises highlighting to the students
the use of mathematics in computing subjects, in particular programming. We did this because
feedback from students showed that they seemed to perceive the mathematics course as being
impossibly hard and completely detached from their other courses, and many had cited this as
the reason for giving up on the course.
Designing good interdisciplinary exercises at university level is not an easy task as most lecturers
are experts in one subject only. PH solved the task by drawing on (i) her own background
which includes a combined degree in mathematics and computing, (ii) NM and other lecturers
in computing and (iii) further computing lecturers/researchers of her acquaintance, some from
other universities. The students appreciated the interdisciplinary lab exercises on a meta-level,
acknowledging that they helped them see the connections between the subjects. However, most
gave the feedback that they had looked at them all, but done only a few of them. It should
be noted the exercises were not part of the assessment, as this would have required careful
synchronisation with the computing courses, which was not possible in the development phase
of the project. The reader is referred to Appendix B for a sample interdisciplinary lab exercise.
4.3 Assessed Send-in Exercises
For each block of study there was a small send-in exercise. In order to allow asynchronous study
the send-in exercises were submitted in two batches. As with assignments on campus courses,
the send-in exercises were corrected by the lecturer and each student given personal feedback
on their work as well as full model solutions. Students submitted send-in exercises via WebCT
and they were also returned by PH via WebCT together with a grade. The reader is referred to
Appendix C for a sample send-in exercise.
Students were able to get help for solving exercises from workshops, but in addition to this the
learning environment created also comprised a number of discussion forums on WebCT where
students could get help from each other and the lecturer. Over 300 messages were exchanged
on these forums during the course of spring 2009.
4.4 Continuous e-assessment
The big drop-out rate on the DMY distance course was one of the main problems we wanted to
address in the project. It was decided to tackle the problem by designing the course to heighten
student engagement. Often distance students can feel isolated and lack motivation due to not
having the peer support that campus students benefit from, so one area where we set in was to
create a community spirit around the WebCT course. We had a presentation forum where everybody,
including the lecturer, had to write a bit about themselves. We had general discussion
forums for all kinds of problems/queries arising and we had a maths questions forum for ANY
maths question arising in the course and in their other courses. We also had the aforementioned
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