Evaluation of IMathAS for Learning Enhancement

Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Grant recipient: Krishna Vijayaraghavan, School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering

Project Team: Sasan Ebrahimi and Mst Sunzida Ferdoues, research assistants

Timeframe: February 2015 to March 2017

Support provided: $10,000

Final report: View Kirshna Vijayaraghavan's final report (PDF)

Interim report: View Krishna Vijayaraghavan's interim report (PDF) and Appendix (DOCX)

Description: Dr. Vijayaraghavan has discovered a software/web-service called IMathAS, for learning mathematics. IMathAS appears to be extremely versatile and has the potential to revolutionize student learning, as students are able to track their progress, and reattempt assignment problems (with feedback) at no additional workload to the instructor. The assignments can be integrated within Canvas. Each student gets a problem with a different numerical value. When the student submits their responses, they get instant feedback with the correct solution. Using the software would allow the instructors and TAs to spend more time exploring alternate teaching methods. However, before IMathAS can be used, an RA is required to program the underlying assignment problems in a language the software can understand. An additional RA is required for assistance with the study on the overall benefit of the software.

Dr. Vijayaraghavan would like to explore the student and instructor experience using IMathAS for part of a course he is teaching in summer 2015. The 2nd part of the course (taught by a different faculty) would be run without IMathAS to collect baseline student performance.

Questions addressed:

• How easy is IMathAS to use?
• Does IMathAS affect the students’ attitude towards the course compared to the traditional method?
• How do students perceive its effect on their understanding of the course?
• Does IMathAS improve learning outcomes?

Knowledge sharing: A written summary provided to Mechatronic Systems Engineering, presentation in a departmental faculty meeting, possible adoption of IMathAS by ENSC and other SFU departments.

Vijayaraghavan, K., Ebrahimi, S., & Ferdoues, M.S. (2018, August 1). Improving learning outcomes using an intelligent tutoring system. Retrieved from http://vixra.org/abs/1808.0013.

Keywords: learning outcomes; software; webservice; online tutor