Revising Basic Mathematics in a Network Environment: An Empirical Study With Finnish Technology University Students

摘要

A revising/replenishment study course in basic mathematics is experienced as being almost a necessity at the beginning of technology studies at the Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland. This is to avoid early dropouts in actual engineering mathematics courses. Experimental research on factors explaining successful revision of mathematical topics that employ a specially developed network environment resembling the globally recognized WebCT and the open source software package, Moodle, is reported in this article. In the years 2003 and 2004, a group of Finnish technology university first year students (n = 206) at the Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland, participated in a pilot study course in which they first revised basic mathematics employing a network environment and then they took an examination. The results showed a significant improvement in terms of the percentage of successful participants in the test. However, there were two general themes derived from the empirical data that can be seen as potential development targets: (a) impulsive behavior of the students and (b) their weak meta skills.