Cheryl Voake, Lisa Taylor and Rob Wilson. (2013) Transition difficulties from FE to HE - What is the situation and what can we do about it? MSOR Connections, Volume 13, Issue 2: 6-14. DOI: 10.11120/msor.2013.00014 A common complaint from staff in Higher Education (HE) is that students arrive from Further Education (FE) providers with a lack of awareness of what to expect at university. This is manifested by an unpreparedness and, in some cases, an unwillingness for autonomous learning and self-responsibility. This study was designed to assess student awareness and preparedness for HE, with a particular focus on Mathematics. This was achieved via FE student and teacher questionnaires and a focus group, which crucially allowed judgement between studentsâ?? perceived awareness and their actual awareness. The focus group also gave FE students an opportunity to quiz HE students on their experiences and opinions, and gave the HE students the opportunity to provide information they felt was missing from their own transition to university.

It is often useful to rearrange, or transpose, a formula in order to write it in a different, but equivalent form. This unit explains the procedure for doing this. (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.

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) This resource is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.

In this mathtutor extention video, Alyson Stibbard explores triangular numbers, dicusses their properties and explains how to calculate them. This resource is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.

In this unit we see how the three trigonometric ratios cosecant, secant and cotangent can appear in trigonometric identities and in the solution of trigonometric equations. Graphs of the functions are obtained from a knowledge of sine, cosine and tangent. (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) The video is released under a Creative Commons license Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works and the copyright is held by Skillbank Solutions Ltd.

In this unit we consider trigonometric identities and how to use them to solve trigonometric equations. (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.

This leaflet lists a number of commonly used trigonometrical identities. (Engineering Maths First Aid Kit 4.4)

This leaflet explains the various types of force which are commonly found when studying the motion of physical bodies.

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.

In this unit we construct a Table of Derivatives of commonly occurring functions. This is done using the knowledge gained in previous units on differentiation from first principles. (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.

Computer based assessment has been used at UWE for a number of years on certain modules run by the School of Mathematical Sciences. In this case study we discuss the operation of the assessment for a first year engineering mathematics module in which students are permitted multiple attempts and are allowed, within an specified period of time, to choose when they take the assessment. Feedback from students has been highly positive about the assessment regime and our observation is that operating the tests in this way does encourage students to work steadily throughout the year.