student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Part B: Building Leadership Capacity - SET: Mathematics & Geospatial Sciences ART Report
10.3 Background and Project Focus
What courses were the subject of this project? Give total student numbers
and breakdown how it was taught at the start of the project. Include any
other relevant information about the profile of the students and the
context of delivery.
The following courses which have large enrolments were considered:
MATH2123
This course was taught to 220 first year students in the first semester.
The students in this course are from 5-6 different disciplines with varying TER
scores depending on the discipline. This introduces considerable variation in
their mathematical abilities. The course is taught via the following approaches:
face-to-face lectures, mathematics practice classes and Statistics computer
labs. The teaching materials for the course are posted on the Learning Hub
via blackboard so that during lectures students have time to listen and then
write the solutions to the problems listed in their weekly lecture notes,
practice sheet or lab assignments.
The course material is composed of 50% Mathematics and 50% Statistics.
At the beginning of the project the mathematics component was assessed
only through a number of weblearn tests where students could repeat each
weblearn test to a maximum of 10 times until they achieved a score of 80%.
Only then, are they permitted to attempt the next weblearn test. The statistics
component was assessed through a: 70% final exam (open book), a 10%
computer assignment that would require the students to answer a set
of questions that covered all topics in the course by using the Statistical
computer package, MINITAB. For each question on the computer assignment,
students were asked to generate random data enabling each student to work
with a different data set to minimize plagiarism. They had one weblearn test
weighted 10%, where students could do similar online practice quizzes as
many times that they wanted for practice but could only attempt the test once.
The final 10% was allocated to being up-to-date with their designated weekly
problems from their text book. These problems were ticked off (but not
marked) in their working note book every other week. To achieve the maximum
10% students were required to have done the assigned problems every week.
Doing so would enable them to have extensive practice on topics that
were covered during that week.
MATH2114
This is a course taught to 220 first year students in the second semester.
The students in this course are from one discipline with high TER scores,
therefore their mathematical ability is almost uniform. The course is taught
via the following approaches: face-to-face lectures, mathematics practice
classes and statistics computer labs. The teaching materials for the course are
posted on the Learning Hub via Blackboard. This group are taught in a lecture
venue where there are no writing facilities, therefore, the solutions to lecture
notes problems are also posted on the Learning Hub via Blackboard which
means during lectures students have time to listen more and write very little.
Page 135