Abstract:

The aim of this work is to provide a reliable, common base of knowledge about standard mathematical subjects for students that want to enroll to any kind of scientific faculty.
To attract students who had some troubles with Mathematics, and with the somewhat boring way to teach it in high school, we adopted a non standard approach: without pretending to be exhaustive, a selected list of exercises is proposed to the students, under the guise of a game. The students are stimulated to check and improve their level by, for instance, solving a memory game or helping Indiana Jones to survive. The use of an informal language and comics always support the introduction of the most relevant or difficult topics, which traditionally do not find an enthusiastic welcome by the students.

The website provides many different sections, with different pedagogical aims.

•TEST
A multiple choice test, that the student may use to check his/her level: it consists of 20 questions, from high school program.

•PERCORSO DIDATTICO (didactical trail)
A brief of basics arguments, in 8 short chapters. All definitions and properties are introduced in the most simple way, and complemented by examples and exercises. Comics and interactive games help the student to focus on definitions and notations, which are later tested in a selected set of solved and attended exercises. Concretely, any exercise is first solved, and then proposed a second time in a interactive way: at any crucial step, the student is asked to decide about the correctness of the involved argument. This is to warn the student that to read a mathematical argument is not the same as understanding it: learning mathematics needs an active approach. At the end of each chapter some standard exercises (“paper and pen” exercises) are proposed: the ability to solve new exercises, although similar to those already considered, but in a completely autonomous way, must be the arrival point of any pedagogical project.

•MATEBURG
The town of Math, namely a collection of buildings, each devoted to a single mathematical argument: inside each building, three enjoyable and interactive games check the specific skills.

•CACCIA ALL’ERRORE (spot the mistake)
A wrong solution is provided to a selected set of exercises, and the student is asked to find the mistakes: thanks to all the unaware students that, during many years, kindly furnished so much materials for this kind of exercises. Once again, the aim is to highlight the active and critical approach that the study of Mathematics requires.

The project was developed in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino and Ministero dell’Istruzione, Università e Ricerca. The address of the website is:

http://elearning.polito.it/courses/EMATH/scorm/emath_demo/home.swf

Keywords:

e-learning, mathematics, self-evaluation.