An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students KUŠEN EMA, PROF. DR. SC. MARINOVIĆ MARIJA DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATICS, UNIVERSITY OF RIJEKA Fourth international scientific colloquium Mathematics and children Mathematics teaching for the future, April 19-20, 2013

Introduction  approach of designing and teaching the course Operations Research with the help of the ICT  present the results of the survey  in which measure the designed activities helped students to acquire knowledge Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students,

ICT in math courses enhances problem solving abilities ADVANTAGESADVANTAGES faster arithmetic calculations better understanding of basic math concepts focus on the results analysis focus on mathematical model construction 3 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

“ ” Operations research is an interdisciplinary field whose task is to solve scientific and economic problems with quantitative methods. optimization problems real-life problems familiarize students with the mathematical background in optimization 4 Teaching Operations Research Müller-Merbach, 1973 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

Operations Research at the University of Rijeka 5 Faculty of EconomicsFaculty of Engineering Faculty of Maritime Studies Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management Department of Informatics University of Rijeka Faculty of Civil Engineering Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

Teaching Operations Research to Informatics students INFORMATICS STUDENTS DOUBLE MAJOR (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) Teacher training module (5 ECTS) SINGLE MAJOR Information and Communication Systems (6 ECTS) Business Informatics (6 ECTS) 6 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

A need for improvement  decrease in the GPA of a student  the weakest results in:  computer lab classes,  theoretical exam. 7 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

A new course design approach  factors by which teachers can influence on students' performances (Mahmud, Saliman, 2012) 1. A problem of the limited time of lectures 2. Competition among students 3. Level of knowledge and skills which students have to achieve in order to pass the final test 4. Level of complexity and quantity of presented materials 8 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

A new course design approach A problem of the limited time of lectures  Cloud-based LMS  additional points: 63,8% 9 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

A new course design approach Competition among students  Balancing between competition and a learning community 10 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013 f2f - blackboard online – web quest

A new course design approach Level of knowledge and skills which students have to achieve in order to pass the final test  test prerequisites:  two homework assignments  online self-assessment quiz  an optional class (one week before the test)  format of the test was changed  mathematical definitions  short and precise conclusions 11 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

A new course design approach Level of complexity and quantity of presented materials 12 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

A new course design approach Level of complexity and quantity of presented materials  Computer lab classes 13 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

Research Methods  a survey (22 questions)  73% completed the survey  student’s experience in the course Operations Research  additional comments 14 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

Results  64% recognized the use of operations research in everyday life 15 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

Results  computer lab classes  50% - additional software  63% - more computer lab classes 16 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013

Conclusion  quality of mathematics courses and technology  positive sides:  the results of the computer lab class assignments were significantly better  enthusiasm and interest in problem solving assignments 17 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013  new guidelines for further improvement:  greater need for practical computer problem solving tasks Changes in the Operations Research course program

Thank you for your attention! 18 Kušen, Marinović, An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for Informatics students, 2013 Kušen Ema Marinović Marija