1. The HELM Project: Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics
Presented by
Dr Martin Harrison
Project Director

2. The HELM Project Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics - HELM
Major 3-year curriculum development project
Consortium of five UK universities
Hull, Loughborough, Manchester, Reading, Sunderland
UK government funding £250,000
Oct Sept 2005
To enhance the mathematical education of engineering undergraduates by the provision of a range of flexible learning and teaching resources

3. HELM Target Group
Departments and academics teaching mathematics to engineering undergraduates
Engineering undergraduates
who are the focus of “the mathematics problem”
Clear need for more flexible mathematics curriculum for engineering undergraduates

4. HELM Learning Environment
Using computer technology to develop
A range of learning resources (Workbooks, CAL courseware)
Assessment procedures
Integrate into existing programmes
Selecting stand-alone units
Adopting the whole scheme
Use
To support lectures and continuous assessments
To complement existing resources and texts
For independent or group learning
Also useful resource for science students and even specialist mathematics students

5. HELM Workbooks
High quality written materials distributed to students as workbooks.
Paper-based (~2800 pages) and electronic versions (PDF) are available
46 workbooks cover UK engineering mathematics & statistics syllabus
2 workbooks of engineering case studies & applications
Student’s Guide & Tutor’s guide

6. HELM Workbooks - Sample

7. HELM Workbooks - Sample

8. HELM Workbooks Each Workbook contains
Key points and contents in manageable sizes
Tasks - guided exercises and worked solutions
Students can insert their solutions
Engineering examples
Workbook 12, for example, illustrates all these features

9. HELM Interactive Lessons
Web-delivered CAL courseware
Multimedia interactive lessons (Authorware)
About 80 segments related to 23 workbooks
Audio, interactivity, revision exercises
Self-assessments

10. HELM Assessment Regime
Computer Aided Assessment - why?
To reduce burden on staff involved in continuous assessment
To check if students have mastered a new engineering mathematics concept
To encourage self-assessment (formative)
To drive student learning
A regular pattern of short periods of study followed by assessment drives learning along at a steady pace
Essential to gain the full potential of the other learning resources

11. CAA: Implementation at LU
Question Mark Perception (QMP)
Integrated web-delivered CAA regime
Self-testing (Formative)
Formal assessment (Summative)
CD based CAA regime
Self-testing is straightforward
Formal assessment may be more difficult
Requires a mechanism for marks to be processed and stored.

12. CAA: Screenshots
CAA: QM Perception Screenshots

18. CAA: Resources 4500 questions in about 150 question banks
Most have feedback as worked solutions, examples or generic instruction
Each bank contains 20 clones of each question
Tests can be custom-made by selecting questions from more than one bank of questions

19. Trialling High level of interest
Over 60 academics from over 40 UK HEIs or FEIs involved in the development and evaluation of the resources
Universities/Individuals in Germany, Netherlands, USA have also expressed interest

20. Evaluation Outcomes Workbooks Interactive Lessons CAA
Significant uptake
Layout & content
Errors
Interactive Lessons
Mainly used as an additional resource
CAA
Widespread interest
Implementation overheads of web delivery led to CD version

21. Modes of Usage Lecturers’ use Students’ use ~20% as core notes
Half of these implement the CAA regime to provide formative & summative testing
~50% as supplementary material linked to lecture content
~30% in support centres
Students’ use
Independent learning, particularly
Mature students
Special needs students, e.g. dyslexics

22. CAA: Likes and Dislikes
Students like flexibility
Taking tests when they are ready
Taking tests where they want
Taking practice tests as many times as they wish
Students dislike
Unforgiving nature of CAA
No marks for the method and intermediate steps
Staff concerns
Common question banks for practice & formal testing
Cheating in unsupervised summative testing

23. Continuation Loughborough’s Mathematics Education Centre
CETL (Provision of University-Wide Mathematics & Statistics Support)
Maintain the HELM website
Maintain the written materials (in electronic form)
Hold the CAA Question Bank
Consortium Members
May update materials (for their own needs)
Could provide ongoing support (at cost)

24. Transferability HEFCE transferability funding Aims Partners
Leicester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth & Salford
Oct Sept 2006
Aims
Encourage the effective transfer of practice across institutions
Convert further HEIs into long-term users of HELM learning resources
Monitor usage in different pedagogic ways
Evaluate the difficulties, successes & failures in transfer

25. Summary Need HELM Learning Resources
More flexible mathematics learning resources due to increasing diversity of intake standards
HELM Learning Resources
Potential to enhance the mathematical education of engineering undergraduates
Provide an alternative to lectures
Can be used in distance learning mode

26. Conclusions HELM Workbooks HELM Interactive Lessons HELM CAA
Encourage student engagement during lectures
HELM Interactive Lessons
Complement workbooks & aid understanding
HELM CAA
Flexible access via web delivery
Facilitates regular testing of large numbers of students
Random question selection
Instant feedback
Incorporates formative and summative testing
Drives student learning

27. Contact HELM Phone: +44 (0) 1509 227461
Web: