Abstract:

Many of my students are convinced that they are no good at math and that they probably will fail. This they tell me at the beginning of their studies, which is somewhat peculiar as they must have enrolled with the purpose of graduating.

At Bifröst University large proportion of our students are returning to Higher Education (HE) after many years break. A few of them must enter a preparatory program to be able to enrol in our undergraduate programs. Most of our students are in distance learning programs, attending on-campus long weekends at least twice per semester, that last three to four days each time. Our teaching and communication with students relies heavily on our learning management system (LMS) as well as other technical solutions. When we meet our students face-to-face, we apply what would be defined as a flipped classroom, all lectures and instructions are already available in the LMS so we can spend our time together talking and working on projects.

Students entering preparatory programs and those entering undergraduate business studies begin with my mathematic courses. More than half of the students are over 30 years old and have not been in a classroom for years. More than half of the students say they do not have a good background in mathematics and almost 80% of the students think that they will have to spend more time on math than on other courses, and they are quite nervous according to my studies.
The question is, how can I help them? Although I first and foremost define my role as easing their suffering, I must know what helps them through the tough math-days. Will it be the content presented on the LMS, the demanding projects, some help from peers or the additional material that is to be found on the Internet? What kind of teaching methods work for them?

A survey before the beginning of their mathematics studies measured their perception on how well they were prepared as well as how they felt. Were they afraid? Did they look forward to their struggle? A few months after the course’s completion they answered a survey on how they felt afterwards and on what helped them most.

Keywords:

e-learning, distance learning, flipped classroom, barriers to learning, lifelong learning, teaching mathematics, teaching challenges, learning management system.