Abstract:

Freshmen in business-administrative careers arrive with deficiencies in their procedures and mathematical skills. Along many years, they have generated a negative affect towards mathematics (Ibarra-González & Eccius-Wellmann, 2018), because they could not overcome the mistakes they make. They engender new negative emotions that have consequences such as abandonment of tasks and flee from difficulties. School teachers can hardly dedicate themselves, showing each student the reason why they were wrong in a procedure. On the other hand, many students do not ask, because they are exposed to their classmates and to their teacher.

That is why, within the Universidad Panamericana, Mexico, MathUP® was created, an Internet-based computer program, a Computer-Aided Assessment (CAA), which takes advantage of students' interest in knowing the causes of their mistakes in order to overcome them (De la Torre, 2004), in addition to being aimed at the Z generation. It covers two subjects: Fundamentals of Calculus (Algebra) and Differential Calculus.

The answers to the multiple choice questions are designed so that most students find their response, wrong or not, among them. The answers were carefully designed, and a lengthy research backs them up. Almost all students that commit an error, will find her/his mistake under the multiple answers. What distinguishes MathUP® from other math programs? MathUP® explains students why they have committed an error.

When a student chooses a wrong answer, the program not only points out the fact that the answer was wrong and show her/him step by step (the only thing that other math-programs do) how it should be solved, simplified or graphed, but, first of all, the student gets feedback on what was the cause or probable origin of the committed mistake. It also provides, if it is possible, an example and a counterexample. After reading the explanation of the probable cause of the error and the correct process, a new exercise is provided with literals and constants changed randomly.

Several researches were carried out with the different subjects, and it was found: The greater the number of exercises solved in MathUP®, the greater the difference between a pretest and posttest. The incidence of attrition in the first semester, was lower after the use of the platform in Algebra. In a survey, the students said that they liked to be feedback by the program about their mistakes (and liked it more because it is immediately after they committed the error), and having then the possibility to return and verify their learning. They also liked not being exposed to their classmates and teachers.

Being able to verify the advantages and effectiveness of the MathUP® platform, the university decided to create a new, more robust platform, with gamification and pet that encourages students to keep studying. The objective of SmarterUP® was to provide schools with the benefits from K-10 to K-12. It began with the subjects of Algebra and Differential Calculus, considering the programs of the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico.

For research the program keeps a lot of information, about the time it takes for students to answer, how much time they spend reading the explanations of their mistakes, and the most frequent responses of the students.

When presenting the work, the platform will be exhibited with examples on how the feedback is handled, the randomness in the exercises and the gamification.

Keywords:

MathEducation-platform, Mathematics Education, Feedback, Errors.