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Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, is considered one of Sweden’s most distinguished technical universities. The university’s programs are focused on research and teaching within technology and natural science, and mathematics is foundational to all technical programs offered at Chalmers. When the faculty at Chalmers realized that new students were struggling with advanced mathematics, they took immediate action.

Competition amongst technical universities is high and it is becoming harder for universities to recruit the best students to math intensive education. Chalmers is also finding that more and more students are taking a break from school after they complete their Gymnasium studies (similar to High School in North America), and this leads to lack of interest and reduced mathematics knowledge. As a result, getting students to enroll in mathematics classes is becoming more difficult, and for those students who do enroll, universities are seeing a reduction in students’ overall math achievements. In order to maintain their high international standards, Chalmers wanted to find a way to strengthen incoming students’ math knowledge before the students began their mathematics studies at the university level.  The university believed that if students were better prepared when they entered their math programs, more students would complete their studies and overall performance levels would increase.

At Chalmers University of Technology the department of Mathematical Sciences is responsible for all teachings in mathematics. The department of Mathematical Sciences is a joint department between Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg.

In 2008 the Mathematical Sciences department introduced the Summer Math Program designed for students preparing to start math intensive education at Chalmers in the fall. The program was offered using the web-based system Maple T.A., a testing and assessment system that supports complex, free-form entry of equations and intelligent evaluation of responses, making it ideal for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. It offers an advanced authoring environment that lets professors create custom content quickly and easily, and it does the marking automatically, making it simple to analyze the results. Maple T.A. was integrated with the learning management system, Ping Pong, to create a very effective learning environment for the new summer math course.

“We wanted a way to bring students back up to speed with their mathematics knowledge before they started attending university math courses. Maplesoft’s online system for testing and assessment seemed like the perfect solution. I also really liked that the Maple T.A. system was backed by Maple. Maple is used in many of the academic programs at Chalmers, so Maple T.A. just seemed like the next logical step,” said Jan Alve Svensson, a professor in the Mathematical Sciences department at Chalmers.

In 2009, over 1,600 students voluntarily participated in the Program, and over 29,000 assignments were generated, marked and graded automatically using the Maple T.A. system. Another benefit for Chalmers came from the fact that most of the Summer Math Program – student administration, testing and grading – was accomplished by a staff of 2!

“Because the system was managed entirely online, it meant the students could take the summer course from any location, which made it much easier to administer,” said Svensson.

Educators at Chalmers have found that the students who used Maple T.A. to participate in the Summer Math Program were better prepared and more confident upon entering their regular studies. Overall, both the students and faculty were very impressed with what the Maple T.A. environment, together with the Ping Pong learning management system, managed to deliver. Over 90% of students rated their experience ‘Good to Excellent’.  Says one Chalmers mathematics student: “I’ve now attended my first lectures at Chalmers and without the [summer] course I’d be lost!