Maple TA and Geometry : An experience WebALT Open Seminar, April 6, 2006 Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Iver Bailly-Salins and Grégoire Aubry

Introduction  Iver Bailly-Salins  PhD student (Peter Buser)  Teaching assistant at the Chair of Geometry, EPFL  Grégoire Aubry  PhD student (Peter Buser)  Teaching assistant at the Chair of Geometry, EPFL

Goal of this talk  To provide a feedback on a very concrete experience : Creating a small online exercise bank related to a course.  Technical aspects  Teaching / course contribution aspects

Outline  Framework  Some facts on our experience with Maple TA  A Geometric Maple TA Question  Authoring Process  Maple TA as interface between instructor and student  Conclusion

Framework  First experience during winter semester, Thomas Gauglhofer used Maple TA in K.-D. Semmler's calculus class  Geometry course, 1st-year undergraduate students  One-semester course 14 weeks x (2-hour lecture + 1-hour example class)  80 students  Example sheet (paper version) + detailed solution sheet (provided a week after)

Framework  Maple TA exercices as complementary study material (translation and "randomization" of existing exercices rather than designing new exercices)  Motivation  Immediate grading and feedback to student and teacher  Large database of a kind of exercise

Framework  Life scheme of a Maple TA example sheet

Some facts on our expericence with Maple TA  2 part-time teaching assistants  Contact period with Maple TA  2 weeks before summer semester  4 weeks during summer semester  First two Maple TA example sheets with 4-5 exercises each  Time per Maple TA exercise : ~ 1 day !  From the third example sheets, "only" 2 exercises per sheet

A Geometric Maple TA Question  Paper version  Typical geometric exercise:  Reflection  Contruction

A Geometric Maple TA Question  Maple TA vision  Interactive drawing – plotting tools  Random elements in exercise generation  Adequate feedback and correction by mapleTA  Intermediate result checks  Adaptable comments  …

A Geometric Maple TA Question Maple TA Reality

A Geometric Maple TA Question  To build up this question, we need knowledge in  Maple TA  Source syntax  Algorithmic syntax (similar but different from Maple syntax)  MathML  Maple  HTML  LaTeX  In order  To be efficient (time)  To be able to overcome Maple TA bugs

A Question Authoring Process  Parts of a Maple TA question  Algorithm  Question text  Grading process  Assignement design

A Question Authoring Process Question text design

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Local Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Question text design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access Repeat !!

A Question Authoring Process Algorithm design

A Question Authoring Process Algorithm design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Algorithm design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Algorithm design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Algorithm design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Internet Access

A Question Authoring Process Algorithm design Maple Text / Latex editor Local files Latex – Maple TA converter Maple TA Local Access Repeat !! Internet Access

Maple TA : instructor-student interface Maple TA Assignment Question Text Hints Response Grading & Feedback StudentInstructor

Maple TA : instructor-student interface  Improvements possible  Adding simple means of communication  Decreasing Instructor work load  Media increases knowledge gap  Adds technical knowledge gap (maple/software) to mathematical knowledge gap

Conclusion  More work than expected  Complexity of creation process  Correction – grading work load hardly diminished  Poorer results than expected  Limitations of the tool  Some questions on the effectiveness of the result  Opaque instructor-student communication  Mitigated student motivation  Who’s fault ?  Ours  The tool  The media

Contact  Iver Bailly-Salins  Grégoire Aubry