Developing Digital Technologies for Undergraduate University Mathematics: Challenges, Issues and Perspectives

Abstract

Our research effort presented in this paper relates with developing digital tools for mathematics education at undergraduate university level. It focuses specifically on studies where mathematics is not a core subject but it is very important in order to cope with core subjects. For our design, we adopt a participatory design method, involving collaboration with students and teachers. As a first step in our design, we developed in collaboration with teachers a set of visualization applets using GeoGebra for the “Mathematics for Multimedia Applications” course taught for Media Technology students at Aalborg University Copenhagen. Then we conducted focus groups with students where they reflected on the introduction of these applets and proposed ways to improve them or alternative ways to present the specific part of the curriculum. At the same time, we conducted observations of teachers and students during lectures and exercise time. During these observations we were able to investigate how the applets were used in practice but also to get insight in the challenges that the students face during mathematics learning. These findings together with student feedback inspire the next round of design requirements for the development of digital tools that support mathematics teaching and learning at university level.