Video production - mathematics for beginner students

Abstract

Beginner student courses in mathematics in higher education have had high failure rates across the country. A national study [1] conducted by the Norwegian Association of Higher education Institutions (UHR) in 2013 showed that students need help with the transition from upper secondary school to university or college. As one of the initiatives following this study, UHR joined forces with Centre for Research, Innovation and Coordination of Mathematics Teaching (MatRIC) financing the production of mathematics videos that would help students with the transition from upper secondary school to university or college. A group of six people from four higher education institutions, all with experience from teaching mathematics to upper secondary school students and/or first year university students, formed the video production group. So far the group has produced over 100 videos with a total running time of over 1000 minutes. These videos are freely available to everyone at the MatRIC TV web site [2] as a national resource. The production group has made several decisions about the presentation of the mathematical material and the design of the videos along the way. In this contribution to the MNT conference we will discuss these choices and our experiences with producing these videos, and also their impact.