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Mathematics for Engineers - the HELM Project

Article · January 2003

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Mathematics for Engineers – the HELM Project
D.R. Green, M.C. Harrison, J.P. Ward
Mathematics Education Centre,
Loughborough University,
Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK.
Email: HELM@Lboro.ac.uk

ABSTRACT
This paper describes a major three-year curriculum development project – HELM: Helping
Engineers Learn Mathematics – and outlines its development during its first year.

1. INTRODUCTION

Mathematics pervades all areas of engineering and it is essential that engineering


undergraduates understand many mathematical concepts and learn to apply them successfully
to engineering problems. As a consequence, the UK’s Engineering Council rightly demands a
high level of mathematical knowledge and skill in its accredited engineers. The design and
delivery of an appropriate mathematical curriculum for engineering undergraduate students
must therefore be of central importance to engineering educators since mathematics is a
common thread in almost all engineering courses. However, teaching mathematics to
engineers is not without its difficulties, a major one being the so called ‘mathematics
problem’, which has been the subject of numerous research reports [for example (1), (2), (3),
(4)] and has been debated at many conferences [for example (5), (6), (7)].

This paper suggests one possible solution to the mathematics problem, the HELM learning
environment, which is being developed with the assistance of UK Government funding. The
HELM project aims to enhance the teaching of mathematics to engineers by the provision of a
range of flexible learning and teaching materials and by using assessment to drive student
learning. These learning resources and the assessment regime are described here in some
detail.

2. THE HELM PROJECT

The HELM project evolved from some earlier work at Loughborough where, in 1997, the
University made funding available for the ‘Open Learning Project’ in Mathematics for
Engineers. This provided high-quality student-centered workbooks, computer-aided learning
material closely allied to the workbooks, and a strategy for computer-aided assessment which
can be used for self-assessment and for formal module assessment. Students following this
open learning regime can attend lectures or, if they so wish, choose to study, with guidance,
the mathematics independently in distance learning mode. The success of the Open Learning
Project encouraged staff to seek funding to develop further this work resulting in the HELM
project (Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics) which is supported by a £250,000 HEFCE-
FDTL4 grant for the period Oct 2002-Sept 2005.

The HELM team consists of staff at Loughborough and four consortium partners at the
Universities of Hull, Reading, Sunderland and UMIST. The project aims to considerably
enhance, extend and test Loughborough’s original Open Learning materials, in particular by
the writing of additional Workbooks and incorporating engineering exercises and case studies
closely related to the mathematics presented, extending the question databanks, and
promoting widespread trialling. The HELM project’s output will consist of Workbooks,
Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) courseware and a Computer-Aided Assessment (CAA)
Regime which is used to help ‘drive the student learning’. Sample materials can be viewed at
the HELM website at http://helm@lboro.ac.uk.

The Workbooks may be integrated into existing engineering degree programmes either by
selecting isolated stand-alone units to complement other materials or by creating a complete
scheme of work for a semester or year or two years by selecting from the large set of
Workbooks available. These may be used to support lectures or for independent learning.

Nothing on this scale has been attempted before for free dissemination across the HE sector in
England and Northern Ireland. The emphasis is on flexibility – the work can be undertaken as
private study, distance learning or can be teacher-led, or a combination, according to the
learning style and competence of the student and the approach of the particular lecturer.

3. THE HELM LEARNING RESOURCES

In total, 40 Workbooks are planned of which 33 will be available for trialling by Autumn
2003. These comprise:
• 37 Student Workbooks (listed in the Appendix) written specifically with the typical
engineering student in mind containing mathematical topics, worked examples,
mathematical exercises and related engineering exercises.
• 2 sets of engineering Case Studies ranging over many engineering disciplines provided
by an experienced group at Hull University and others.
• 1 Tutor’s Guide relating success stories and challenges and encapsulating good practice
derived from trialling in a variety of institutions with their individual contexts and
cultures.

The Workbooks are the main student learning resource. Each Workbook is subdivided into
manageable Sections. Each Section begins with statements of pre-requisites and the desired
learning outcomes. Numerous examples are included and Key Points are highlighted. Within
Sections, guided exercises include space for students to attempt the questions, and guide them
through problems in stages, where appropriate. At the end of Sections, further exercises
allow students to consolidate their learning. As far as possible, each Section is designed to
be a self-contained piece of work that can be attempted by the student in a few hours.
Typically, a whole Workbook may cover about 4 to 6 lectures of work.

Web-delivered CAL courseware in the form of interactive lessons complements the


Workbooks. The courseware presently contains 67 CAL segments which link to about half of
the Workbooks. It includes audio and animation to stimulate interest, revision exercises with
randomly generated questions for the benefit of students working independently and self-
assessment aspects to aid learning. The courseware has been found to be especially useful for
supporting students of moderate mathematical ability, and for revision. It is also useful for
illustrating lectures.

4. THE HELM ASSESSMENT REGIME

In formal educational environments assessment is normally an integral part of learning. This


is recognised by the HELM project which uses Computer-Aided Asssessment (CAA) to
encourage self-assessment and hence verify that the appropriate skills have been learned.
Students need encouragement and confirmation that progress is being made. The project’s
philosophy is that assessment should be at the heart of any learning and teaching strategy and
Loughborough University’s own implementation of HELM makes extensive use of CAA to
drive the students' learning.

HELM provides an integrated web-delivered CAA regime for both self-testing and formal
assessment. Students following the project’s regime at Loughborough are typically tested four
or five times each semester with questions delivered over the web. Currently there are over
3000 questions in 25 question banks; most have a page of feedback. These are being further
enhanced and extended. Students are encouraged to engage in their own learning by allowing
them unlimited trial tests before taking a one-attempt summative test. As each summative test
is worth 6% of the module mark, students are motivated to keep up with their studies, thereby
improving achievement and the all-important progression rates.

CAA is an essential part of the project and this raises potential difficulties over transferability,
as each HEI would need to support this on completion of the project to gain the full benefit.
The adoption of Question Mark Perception (QMP) at Loughborough has allowed us to deliver
tests to large numbers of students over the web since October 2000. QMP has the significant
benefit of being IMS QTI compliant, which is the accepted standard for question mark up.
Other HEIs using any QTI compliant assessment engine will be able to import the HELM
question banks for use in their own institutions. Such HEIs would need to put in place an
appropriate system in order to properly administer student test taking and associated
information through CAA.

Web-delivered CAA is convenient but not essential and an alternative implementation based
on CDs is being trialled. All of the HELM tests (that is, all the questions and all the linked
feedback) together with all the Workbooks easily fit onto one CD. Students provided with
such a CD can then operate in distance learning mode doing the required work and
completing tests on the CD. This is easy to implement if only self-testing is required; formal
testing is more challenging, requiring a server so that the students can submit their completed
tests for processing. This way the test can be done off-line and students need not be live on
the web for long periods - only the few seconds it takes to upload test results. This scheme has
already been successfully incorporated in another Loughborough University based project,
undertaken on behalf of the Royal Academy of Engineering, entitled BestMaths [see (8)].
Thus within the time-span of the project (2002-2005) most UK institutions should be in a
position to be able to exploit the HELM Assessment regime one way or another.
In a typical web-based testing regime students are given a Workbook for a new topic in Week
1 (for self-study or lecture support). Week 3 is then a Test week (during which lectures and
tutorials run as normal, but on a new Workbook). The Test week is organised thus. On
Monday to Wednesday a trial test is available. Students may take this test at any time within
this period and, as it is web-delivered, anywhere in the world. It can be trialled as often as the
student desires and some students simply access the trial test to get information on question
types and level of difficulty without attempting to answer any questions. Most make a serious
attempt at the trial test at least once; many up to five times. Many work in small groups
sorting out difficulties with the trial test. Some seek help from staff in our Mathematics
Learning Support Centre. Others access the test and input spurious answers just in order to get
the feedback or possibly to try to discover all the possible questions! We find 95% of
students participate in some way. This is a valuable learning mechanism and it is clear that
students now engage with the learning process at some level throughout the semester. On
Thursday and Friday the actual coursework test is available. Again, students may access this
test at anytime within this period and from anywhere. However, they are only allowed to take
this test once.

Both tests have an identical form, selecting questions randomly from previously created
question banks covering aspects of the topic just covered in the Workbook. If a student gets a
question wrong on the trial test a single page of feedback is available. The feedback may be
exemplary (addressing the solution of similar problems to the one presented) or specific (in
which the solution to the given problem is detailed). The only feedback available on taking a
formal coursework test is the overall score and an indication of which questions were
answered correctly and which incorrectly.

Although there are many possible question types we generally use just three: numeric input
(the majority), multiple choice, and hot-spot in which the student is usually required to use the
cursor to identify a ‘deliberate’ error in the solution to a problem. Multiple response questions
may be used in the future.

Following extensive feedback exercises we find this testing regime to be generally popular
with both staff and students. Students particularly like the flexibility this method of
assessment offers. They like the facility to trial tests and the possibility of doing tests when
they are ready. A recurring complaint about this approach is its unforgiving nature: if the
final step is incorrect then no marks are awarded even if every other step was accomplished
correctly. However CAA questions are relatively straightforward and so we would expect
students to get them right each time. It also encourages careful working, which is no bad
thing.

An occasional and valid concern raised by academics is the current practice at Loughborough
of using the same data bank for both trial testing and formal testing. It is intended to have
separate banks in the future (and tell the students) to discourage a rote-learning approach.
Another legitimate concern is over allowing Loughborough students to undertake the formal
tests unsupervised. There are great benefits to the students to allow them this freedom but at
least some supervised tests would seem wise. This is very much up to the individual academic
or institution to decide upon.
5. TRIALLING AND EVALUATION

Although only in its first year, the HELM project has aroused considerable interest already.
Not only are its learning resources on trial at each of the five consortium members but, in
addition, we have made provisional arrangements or will be negotiating to trial them in 2003-
2004 at the following universities and colleges: Aston, Birmingham, Bournemouth,
Bournemouth & Poole, City, Derby, Glamorgan, Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian, Glenrothes,
Harper Adams, Hertfordshire, Kingston, Lancaster, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan, Moray,
Leicester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Nottingham Trent, North Devon, Newcastle, Northumbria,
Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Queen’s Belfast, Robert Gordon, Salford,
Southampton, Surrey, Ulster, UWIC and Westminster Kingsway.

Strictly speaking, this project is limited to HEIs in England and Northern Ireland but there has
been considerable interest from Scotland, and some from Wales and the funding body
(HEFCE) have agreed that institutions in those countries can be included in the trialling.
Interest abroad has been shown but the project’s intention is to wait until it enters its final
year (2004-5) before considering linking outside the UK.

Trialling will determine whether these resources can be successfully used across the HE
sector. Of particular importance to the ultimate success of the HELM project is the viability
of the assessment regime, both web and CD based, elsewhere.

REFERENCES

(1) Sutherland R. & Pozzi, S (1995) The Changing Mathematical Background of


Undergraduate Engineers – A review of the issues. London: The Engineering Council
(2) Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, (1995), Mathematics Matters in
Engineering – Report. London: (The Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Institution of
Civil Engineers, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the London Mathematical Society, the
Institute of Mathematics and its applications.)
(3) Working Group of London Mathematical Society et al (1995) Tackling the Mathematics
Problem, Report – London: The London Mathematical Society, the Institute of Mathematics
and its Applications, and the Royal Statistical Society.
(4) Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, (1999), Engineering Mathematics Matters,
Report, IMA, London.
(5) Proceedings of the 2nd IMA Conference on the Mathematical Education of Engineers
(1997), Loughborough University, Eds. Hibberd, S & Mustoe L.R. IMA ISBN 0 905 091 05
01
(6) Proceedings of the 4th IMA Conference on the Mathematical Education of Engineers
(2003), Loughborough University, Eds. Hibberd, S & Mustoe L.R. IMA
(7) Proceedings of the 9th SEFI European Seminar on Mathematics in Engineering Education,
Helsinki, 1998.
(8) http://bestmaths.lboro.ac.uk/
APPENDIX PROPOSED HELM WORKBOOKS

01 Algebra 21 Discrete Probability Distributions


02 Functions 22 Continuous Probability Distributions
03 Polynomials, Inequalities & 23 The Normal Distribution
Partial Fractions 24 Numerical Methods 1
04 Sets, Probability 25 Numerical Methods 2
& Descriptive Statistics 26 Functions of a Complex Variable 1
05 Modelling 27 Functions of a Complex Variable 2
06 Logarithms & Exponentials 28 Eigenvalues & Eigenvectors
07 Matrices 29 Fourier Series
08 Matrix Solution of Equations 30 The Fourier Transform
09 Vectors 31 Partial Differential Equations
10 Complex Numbers 32 Numerical Methods 3
11 Differentiation 33 Numerical Methods 4
12 Techniques of Differentiation 34 Statistics 3
13 Applications of Differentiation 35 Statistics 4
14 Integration 36 Multiple Integration
15 Applications of Integration 37 Vector Calculus
16 Sequences & Series 38 Case Studies 1
17 Conics & Polar Coordinates 39 Case Studies 2
18 Functions of Several Variables 40 Tutor’s Guide
19 Differential Equations
20 The Laplace Transform

Those Workbooks or parts which are underlined are newly written materials for the HELM
project. The remainder are enhanced and extended Workbooks based upon the Loughborough
Open Learning Project materials.

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