Projekti Matematiikan etäopiskelun toteuttaminen

Joensuun yliopistossa (nyk. Itä-Suomen yliopisto)

Mathematics Distance Education Project 

at the University of Joensuu (now University of Eastern Finland, UEF)
Updated 5.3.2016
Links
University of Eastern Finland front page
Mathematics (and physics) pages
Projects in Mathematics Education
Itä-Suomen yliopiston etusivu
Matematiikan (ja fysiikan) sivut

 

 Short history
Several consecutive and partly overlapping projects on improving and enhancing the teaching and learning of mathematics have been carried out at the University of Joensuu, starting from early 1990's. These include e.g. 
  • improving the cooperation between the Department of Physics and Mathematics and the Faculty of Education (pedagogical studies and teacher training school) in subject teacher education 
  • introducing computers and handheld calculators in teaching
  • creating and testing Web-based (local & distance) learning materials
  • creating and testing Moodle/Stack/Maxima based learning and testing materials jointly with ABACUS project (Aalto University)
All of this started by a project
Exploiting Information Technology in Mathematics Teaching,
financed by the Ministry of Education, and it was completed and reported by Autumn 1999. 
Its aims were reached well and the attained expertize has been inherited by a new project "Arranging Mathematics Distance Education", supported by the University itself 1999-2000.
This page contains the essential report and links to this latter project, as well to its descendants.

The main goal of this general project is to create and experiment technology-based distance learning material for mathematics. The material is meant to be highly interactive; it should contain interactive and automatic visualizations, 
and the students' engagement is supposed to be ensured by including integrated problems and tasks
which at least partially are verified on-line, with feedback.
In Autumn 1999, a preliminary version of learning material for a first course on complex analysis was experimented.
The material now contains the lecture notes, excercises, some dynamical visualizations and interactive animations and tasks. Also a separate discussion board was established.

Other goals of the project are to start building a system enabling a closer interaction within the material and the people involved, and to design (or adopt) a partially automated tutorial and assessment system. 
For these we need wider cooperation and partner institutions; the work on these projects can be regarded as the Department's initial contribution to the becoming shared enterprise
The Eastern Finland Virtual University Network (ISVY,  2001-2004).

Based on the work done in various projects 1994-2000, the Department of Mathematics is an active partner in a joint pilot project in Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, 
inside the Eastern Finland Virtual University Network


In 2001 and 2002, the local Educational Technology Center supported directly several Departments in their efforts to produce virtual learning material. In the Department of Mathematics we have started creating electronic lecture texts and demos for the central subject study courses Analysis I and II, Linear Algebra and later for Introductory Mathematics (2005). 

In 2003, a new two-year project called
From Visual Animations to Mental Models in Mathematics Concept Formation
was started, this time in cooperation with IPN by the Kiel University. While the previous projects have been development oriented, this project has a strong tendency towards research in mathematics distance learning material. We created Moodle question packages to help the students in understanding concepts like function and binary operation.
However, it relies heavily in the expertize achieved in both Joensuu and Kiel.
The project was prolonged also for the year 2005.

In 2008 we started a new project
Students’ understanding of basic relational concepts in mathematics (function, equivalence and order relation)
We created Moodle question package to help the students in understanding relational concepts like equivalence relation and order relation. 

In 2015-16 we started cooperation with ABACUS project, coordinated by Aalto University, and aimed to gather and create Moodle based learning and testing material, which can contain automatically evaluated symbolical input from users. The question packages mentioned above will be available for ABACUS pool members.
https://abacus.aalto.fi/

Martti E. Pesonen, March 5, 2016

Detailed descriptions of the work in our Projects (links)

  • Lyhyt selvitys toiminnasta (marraskuu 1999 - huhtikuu 2000) 
    		•