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Frode Rønning
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Since 2013 the computer aided assessment system Maple T.A. has been used as the platform for the weekly problem sets in the first two calculus courses for students in the Master of Technology programmes at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Maple T.A. is based on the kernel of the CAS Maple and can evaluate answers given in numerical or algebraic form provided the Maple syntax is being followed.
The students are given one problem set in Maple T.A. each week, 12 sets per course, and to be accepted for the final exam at least 6 out of 12 sets have to be completed to satisfaction. By completing 10 or more problem sets to satisfaction a student gets 10 points credit, out of 100, for the final exam. This way of using the Maple T.A. tests makes them play an important role in the students’ regular work with the mathematics courses. It is therefore to be expected that the students spend quite a lot of time working on the problems given in the Maple T.A. tests.
Introducing Maple T.A. as an artefact in the students’ learning environment is expected to influence the way students work with mathematics. In this talk I will address the question, what implications can the use of Maple T.A. as an assessment system have on the students’ ways of working with mathematics?
To answer the question I will draw on data that are collected from surveys conducted among all students on the technology programmes (around 1500). These surveys contain both quantitative and qualitative data. In addition we have data from focus groups interviews where students have been asked to give an account of how they work with the Maple T.A. problems.