Support system for learning mathematics in engineering higher education programmes: The case of the ‘Mathematics Digital Practice Office’

摘要

In 2013, a program called `Mathematics Digital Practice Office' (CDM), was created at the School of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). Its goals were to offer the students of mathematical courses (curricular units), more opportunities (besides contact hours/classes) to train the exercises, to clarify remaining and last minute doubts and to test their knowledge on the subjects throughout the semester, with the purpose of increasing academic success and mitigating dropout rates in mathematics curricular units/courses. In this scope, a program was implemented, covering, now, 642 students of six mathematics courses of engineering programs. It aims to provide additional support to the face-to-face classes, based on a distance education system, using technology and social networks to enhance learning, with multiple learning strategies (forum, videoconferences, multiple-choice tests, materials repository, etc). For the evaluation of the impact of this initiative, data was collected from different methods allowing us to realize that students are highly satisfied with the initiative and how it is being implemented, that they recognize the importance of the program for their academic success. Regarding students' academic results, the collected data revealed that final grades have increased, for all courses, since the CDM program has been implemented, as well as approval rates. Dropout rates after the first test are lower in courses supported by CDM. The main contribution of this work, is to describe how, in a high and constant academic failure and still relatively high dropout context, a distance learning program - able to be replicated in any course of any given higher education institution - was created and successfully mitigated this situation with the use of virtual platforms and social media to enhance formative assessment.