A report by Brendan Cooney on a project is to investigate possible technologies that enable the transmission of mathematical content, conversations in mathematics, the posing of problems and transfer of solutions in an effective and efficient manner. The intention is to trial various technologies and then to implement the chosen technology for online delivery of mathematics support to RMIT students. (2013)

The past decade or so has seen a huge growth in the number of mathematics support centres within UK higher education institutions as they come to terms with an increasing volume of students who are poorly prepared for the mathematical demands of their chosen courses. In other parts of the world we observe similar developments. In the early years many centres were short-lived enterprises staffed either by concerned volunteers who found a few hours in the week to offer additional support, or alternatively by part-time staff on short-term contracts. More recently, we have observed a trend to more substantial support centres many of which attract central funding and dedicated staff. Given this trend there is a need to ask whether our efforts are worthwhile, how we might know this, and whether we can justify ongoing funding. This talk by TONY CROFT of Loughborough University at Queensland University of Technology, 2009, will describe some of the challenges associated with acquiring data on effectiveness. Various ways in which we can measure our success will be explored. Finally, several exemplars will be provided of work being undertaken to capture the sort of evidence required to secure continued funding of mathematics support centres.

Three questions involving the transpoition of formulae. DEWIS resources have been made available under a Creative Commons licence by Rhys Gwynllyw & Karen Henderson, University of the West of England, Bristol.

A common mathematical problem is to find the angles or lengths of the sides of a triangle when some, but not all, of these quantities are known. It is also useful to be able to calculate the area of a triangle from some of this information. (Mathtutor Video Tutorial) The video is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.

Knowledge of the trigonometric ratios of sine, cosine and tangent is vital in very many fields of engineering, science and maths. This unit introduces them and provides examples of how they can be used to solve problems. (Mathtutor Video Tutorial) The video is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.

The sine, cosine and tangent of an angle are all defined in terms of trigonometry, but they can also be expressed as functions. In this unit we examine these functions and their graphs. We also see how to restrict the domain of each function in order to define an inverse function. (Mathtutor Video Tutorial) This resource is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.

This mathtutor animation shows how graphs of sin, cos and tan may be plotted as angles increase in positive and negative directions. This resource is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.

Five questions on trigonometry. The first involves determining the quadrant an angle lies in, the remaining questions involve solving trigonometric equations. DEWIS resources have been made available under a Creative Commons licence by Rhys Gwynllyw & Karen Henderson, University of the West of England, Bristol.

Ni fhloinn, E., Bhaird, C. M., & Nolan, B. (2014). University students' perspectives on diagnostic testing in mathematics. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 45 (1), 58-74. DOI:10.1080/0020739X.2013.790508 Many universities issue mathematical diagnostic tests to incoming first-year students, covering a range of the basic concepts with which they should be comfortable from secondary school. As far as many lecturers are concerned, the purpose of this test is to determine the students' mathematical knowledge on entry. It should also provide an early indication of which students are likely to need additional help, and hopefully encourage such students to avail of extra support mechanisms at an early stage. However, it is not clear that students recognize these intentions and there is a fear that students who score poorly in the test will have their confidence further damaged in relation to mathematics and will be reluctant to seek help. To this end, a questionnaire was developed to explore studentsâ?? perspectives on diagnostic testing. Analysis of responses received to the questionnaire provided an interesting insight into studentsâ?? perspectives including the optimum time to conduct such a test, their views on the aims of diagnostic testing, whether they feel that testing is a good idea, and their attitudes to the support systems put in place to help those who scored poorly in the test.

Even as long ago as the mid-1990s, a survey for the Open Learning Foundation [1] found that most universities were using some form of mathematics diagnostic testing on their first-year undergraduates, usually during Induction Week. With the advent of computer-aided mathematics diagnostic systems such as DIAGNOSYS [2], it has become easier to obtain an off-the-shelf diagnostic system. Even so, many people still use their own in-house tests. This study considers one such example.

For first and second year engineering students at Napier University, the TI-83 graphics calculator plays a major role in an integrated technological approach to mathematics. This case study reviews the process of integration and its current position in the teaching of students.

A report containing the Royal Society's Vision for science and mathematics education over the next 20 years. This includes a proposal for a broad and balanced curriculum, where young people study science and mathematics until 18 alongside arts, humanities and social sciences. The Royal Society Policy Centre report 01/14 issued June 2014 DES3090.

We sometimes need to calculate the volume of a solid which can be obtained by rotating a curve about the x-axis. There is a straightforward technique which enables this to be done, using integration. (Mathtutor Video Tutorial) This resource is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.