MathsFit

Main idea

Outline

Main Idea behind the support service/initiative: 

Over the past three academic years (2020/21-2022/23) we’ve designed and implemented a suite of supports, both digital and face-to-face, for 1700 incoming first-year students annually, across four service courses (Health Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Science) called MathsFit. 

The objective is to ease the transition from second-level to third-level mathematics and to award students (lecturers in 3 of the 4 above courses endorsed MathsFit by awarding it up to 3.3% of course credit) for engaging with and refreshing their basic mathematics skills and procedures requisite for success in university maths modules.

Purpose & Background: 

Quantitative research conducted on visits to the University College Dublin’s Maths Support Centre (MSC) from 2015-2020 showed that the majority of students attending the centre achieve high grades in the courses they sought support for. Conversely those students who failed mathematics courses, particularly in the first semester of first year typically did not attend the MSC or if they did it was often on only one occasion and late in the semester. Such students then carried these repeat/resit modules in to their second semester thus experiencing a heavier than normal workload which negatively impacted progression on their degree of choice.  Thus, it was conceived that new strategies to engage and support these under-performing students were needed beyond existing measures of advertising and promotion of the MSC service. 

MathsFit is an initiative that supports incoming first-year students of five service courses including Calculus for Science, Introduction to Calculus for Engineers, Mathematics for Business and Mathematics for Agriculture. Four of  the five courses agreed to award 3% of their continuous assessment for MathsFit.  MathsFit leads to the identification of students at-risk of underachieving in mathematics courses with the objective of supporting these students as early as possible in their transition to university mathematics. 

As part of the Mathsfit Programme students in these courses were invited to participate in a quiz to ascertain their maths proficiency. The quiz was assessing fundamental concepts; Arithmetic and Trigonometry, Algebra, and Functions and Calculus. Questions were chosen on the basis that (i) they were taught in the Ordinary Level Leaving Certificate course (the state terminal second-level school examination sat by all school leavers in Ireland).  Existing diagnostic tests from Ireland, the UK, and Australia were consulted. 

Demographic information including students’ entry route to university and feedback on the students’ experience of the quiz were collected through pre and post quiz surveys. Each student was sent a personalised email within 24 hours of their first attempt which included their results for each of the three sections, their overall result and a set of feedback instructions detailing how they may like to remediate. The email wording of these remediation factors was pre-programmed and dependent on their quiz score, which had five bands of classification. For example, those students who did most poorly were invited to book a one-on-one maths support session with a tutor to discuss their quiz and work through the areas they scored poorly on. Those students who scored the highest grade possible were invited to lead a study group of their peers under the facilitation of a senior Maths Support Centre tutor. All students who did not score in the highest band were invited to retake the MathsFit quiz the week after their first attempt so that they may gain the extra academic credit. This allowed us and the students to measure their improvement and further identify students who still score poorly after being offered initial support.

Mathsfit is part of the curriculum for four of the courses who are participating in this initiative. 

Maths Support is offered throughout the academic year through the UCD Maths Support Centre.

The Mathsfit Programme is managed by the Maths Support Centre. 

Goals

As noted above – the objective is to ease the transition from second-level to third-level mathematics and to award students for engaging with and refreshing their basic mathematics skills and procedures requisite for success in university maths modules. 

Target group

Obstacles targetted:

• Educational difficulties

Students involvement

Yes, MathsFit is evaluated after each iteration (three so far), with follow-up student surveys and student interviews. Students input is then used to further develop and inform on the future design and delivery of MathsFit. This includes pedagogical, technological and universal design for learning considerations.

Inspiration and evidence

The rationale for implementing this project were numerous. As noted above, quantitative research conducted on visits to the University College Dublin’s Maths Support Centre from 2015-2020 showed that the majority of students attending the centre achieve high grades in the courses they sought support for (Mullen et al., 2021a). Conversely those students who failed mathematics courses, particularly in the first semester of first year typically did not attend the MSC or if they did it was often on only one occasion and late in the semester. Thus, it was conceived that new strategies to engage and support these under-performing students were needed beyond existing measures of advertising and promotion of the service. Secondly, given the significant disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on second-level students’ mathematics education from March 2020 there was a concern among MSC management that the mathematical preparedness of incoming university students may not be as strong compared to pre-pandemic times. Thirdly, given the disruption to state examinations and the delay to the collation and awarding of teacher awarded grades, university students started later than usual. This meant a reduction in instruction from 12 to 10 weeks. Combined with the fact that first-year final university examinations could not proceed in the traditional fashion, these students needed to be assessed within this same 10-week period. These factors persisted for the 2021/22 student cohorts also.

Success criteria

1. Does MathsFit correctly identify those students most at risk of failing or underperforming in their first university mathematics module? Initial analysis shows that weaker students are engaging earlier with the Maths Support Centre due to MathsFit. 
2. Students’ results with MathsFit Proficiency Quiz is strongly correlated with their final examination results in semester one mathematics module.
3. We are receiving visits to the MSC from the exact cohort we wanted to target i.e. Mature / HEAR (Higher Education Access Route) / DARE (Disability Access Route to Education) /FET-QQI (Further Education & Training – Quality and Qualifications Ireland), and International Students.

The use of an online e-assessment tool such as Numbas (free and open source) or Bolster Academy or Mobius/DigitalEd (both commercial) is vital in getting large-scale engagement for formative elearning.

Effectiveness

Analysis shows that: 

1. We are receiving engagement to the maths support centre earlier than in pre-MathsFit years.
2. Students’ results with MathsFit Proficiency Quiz is strongly correlated with their final examination results in semester one mathematics module.
3. We are receiving visits to the MSC from the exact cohort we wanted to target.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

Yes, MathsFit is evaluated after each iteration (three so far), with follow-up student surveys and student interviews. Students input is then used to further develop and inform on the future design and delivery of MathsFit. This includes pedagogical, technological and universal design for learning considerations.

Communication

MathsFit is communicated via several channels including:

• emails and an information letter in week 0 introducing the MathsFit initiative to all students;
• videos uploaded to each module’s Brightspace site outlining the rationale of MathsFit and how to engage with it;
• in-person introduction at the first tutorials of week 1; lecturer and module coordinator endorsement and advertising;
• personalised feedback is given to every participating student advising them of their next steps in the support process based on their performance to date with MathsFit.

Timing

1st Semester in the first Academic Year.

Resources

• Staff to coordinate the initiative – with expertise in maths and diagnostic assessments. 
• Tutors to provide ongoing Maths support to students.
• An allocated budget to support the ongoing running of the initiative. 

The use of an online e-assessment tool such as Numbas (free and open source) or Bolster Academy or Mobius/DigitalEd (both commercial) is vital in getting large-scale engagement for formative elearning.

Extra information

• Mullen, C., & Cronin, A. (2022). A university mathematics transition programme designed to increase student engagement with mathematics support. In J. Hodgen, E. Geraniou, G. Bolondi & F. Ferretti. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12) (pp.1-8). Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and ERME

The linked paper below gives a good overview of the rationale and preliminary findings of MathsFit based on its first iteration in 2020. The PhD thesis of Claire Mullen’s (claire.mullen@ucdconnect.ie) that investigates the design, delivery and evaluation of MathsFit will be complete in 2024.

Transferability

We think it is easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

Yes, MathsFit is transferable. MathsFit needs to be tailored to the local needs of each institution and thus gathering relevant data is vital e.g. what courses have higher than average failure rates or dropout rates or student dissatisfaction metrics, are there particular student cohorts, for example mature entry students, who would benefit from extra mathematics support? Do you have GDPR clearance and ethical approval to target under-performing students or students considered to be at risk of underperforming?

MathsFit is connected to the University for ALL Initiative in that it encompasses Universal Design for Learning principles of Multiple Means of Expression and Engagement for students.