Some stats re. allocation of the HE Curriculum Innovation Fund

I contributed to the Mathematical Sciences Strand presentation to the Heads of Departments of Mathematical Sciences (HoDoMS) conference in April, giving a short presentation of work taking place in HE Curriculum Innovation under the Strand and explaining the process for allocating the HE Curriculum Innovation Fund. Some highlights in summary:

• 33 projects have been supported involving 36 departments;
• 70% supported projects (by funding) result from the HE Mathematics Curriculum Summit;
• 94% funding allocated by open call (6% for commissioned work);
• 63% supported projects (by funding) for collaborative projects;
• 30+ workshops have taken place or are planned; so far these have attracted attendees from 46 departments;
• The breakdown of funding by topic is (approx.):
  • Engaging with employers on curriculum work & making available industrial problems (30%);
  • Problem solving (23%);
  • Assessment (22%);
  • Student-centred approaches (10%);
  • Maths Arcade (6%);
  • Developing graduate skills (5%);
  • Audio-visual media in teaching and learning (3%);
  • Evaluation methods (0.5%).

Using social media to engage students – a list

I am running a workshop today on using social media to engage students, particularly mathematical sciences undergraduates. I think this is an emerging area about which little is known. I’ve tried to think of some examples of what you might do with these technologies. What do you think of my list? I’d be pleased to hear suggestions for additions, or stories about when you’ve tried this and how it went, in the comments.

• Classroom engagement;
• Building a community;
• Doing/organising project work;
• Students posting content – Flickr or YouTube or whatever;
• Careers/job hunting;
• Making wider connections;
• Outreach;
• Your own professional development.

How we assess mathematics students: a workshop at BMC

If you are attending the British Mathematical Colloquium next week look out for a workshop on ‘How we assess mathematics students: a survey and case studies’. This is being run by our assessment project ‘MU-MAP – Mapping University Mathematics Assessment Practices‘.

This project was funded as a result of the HE Mathematics Curriculum Summit, which was concerned that mathematics at HE could benefit from a wider range of assessment methods but that the research wasn’t available to the community to inform assessment decisions. The project is completing a literature survey of assessment practices, developing case studies and studying the costs and effects of change in assessment methods.

The workshop details are available on the BMC 2012 website. The abstract is below:

This workshop will present findings from the MU MAP Project: Mapping University Mathematics Assessment Practices.
MU MAP (supported by the MSOR Network through the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum Innovation Project) surveyed assessment practices across university mathematics in the UK and developed resources in the form of case studies of assessment of mathematics at undergraduate level. In the workshop we will present results from a survey of assessment methods in UG mathematics, and invite mathematics lecturers who took part in the project to present their case studies of assessment. We will also discuss the costs and effects of the change in assessment practice in the light of the case studies presented.