In Feb 2012 GK made a (tentative) proposal to various people at various Perth universities,
in particular those using moodle,
to trial, and perhaps develop maths questions for the
stack system for Computer Aided Assessment (CAA) in maths (and stats, etc.).
stack is free, open-source, and the usual web-server arrangement would be
LAMP = linux, apache, MySQL, PHP
with moodle (the "Learning Management System")
and maxima (the computer algebra package).
www.stack.bham.ac.uk
The stack developers were partly interested in prospects for CAA for maths at the upper levels of high school, high school calculus.
High schools and education departments rarely have large licences for commercial computer algebra packages.
Academics in university maths departments are aware of the genre - CAA in maths, with the systems underpinned by a Computer Algebra package -
but in departments with appropriate licences for a particular commercial Computer Algebra package - Maple or Mathematica - are likely to be using systems underpinned by these rather than maxima/stack.
In Western Australia, I think the following *university* groups *might* be able to make worthwhile use of stack
UWA - Mathematics Education (as UWA is a moodle site)
Students and staff get to UWA's moodle via
which, however, requires a pheme login first.
Training on moodle is available through CATL, e.g.
http://www.catl.uwa.edu.au/elearning/new_lms/moodle_things_links,_references
Curtin - SMEC (as moodle began in SMEC)
Murdoch Maths and Stats Dept - as it is about to move to moodle and does not have a licence for any commercial computer algebra package which would enable other CAA systems (calmaeth, AiM, etc.) to be used there.
The Maths and Stats departments at universities such as UWA and Curtin that already have licences for commercial computer algebra packages should, I believe, continue to use the systems they have working (calmaeth at UWA, AiM at Curtin).
calmaeth at UWA is at
https://calmaeth.maths.uwa.edu.au/
(Has a guest login)
However, a serious study of the moodle/stack system might be worthwhile as it should be possible to replace maxima by the Computer Algebra
system of one's choice in a way which has the already-written questions (in calmaeth or AiM) running but reporting the results back into moodle.
There are no plans to switch Curtin Maths Department from AiM to moodle (and, if there were, just copying how the universities - York, Sheffield? - run an AiM/moodle combination would get them there).
http://maths.york.ac.uk/yorkmoodle/course/view.php?id=67
( http://maths.york.ac.uk/aiminfo takes one to this )
AiM at Curtin is on various machines, e.g.
http://olld.maths.curtin.edu.au/
However AiM has a particularly nice authoring system and it should be possible to augment stack with an AiM-like authoring system, a task which Greg Gamble and Grant Keady would enjoy.
WHAT IS IN IT FOR Grant Keady IN PROPOSING THIS?
Although there is, in stack, a reasonable collection of tested questions (and more will get written, especially if the British Open University moodle site
takes it up), selecting these for appropriate courses in WA, and augmenting them by writing a few more, needs someone like GK.
A little bit of financial support would be enough to buy useful work from GK.
***
I truly believe that stack (or similar web-delivered maths software) could be useful in various ways.
Students appreciate the instant feedback.
Teachers in high schools (and unis) can save some of the dreary work associated with marking.
Quality agencies (e.g. the forthcoming Federal Govt one) could use the same question banks over umpteen universities etc. and follow if students are actually learning a reasonable amount.
http://sydney.edu.au/science/uniserve_science/pubs/procs/2006/keady.pdf
***
Murdoch Maths
D.Farrow@murdoch.edu.au,K.Harrison@murdoch.edu.au,G.Hocking@murdoch.edu.au,M.Lukas@murdoch.edu.au
D.Farrow@murdoch.edu.au;K.Harrison@murdoch.edu.au;G.Hocking@murdoch.edu.au;M.Lukas@murdoch.edu.au
Curtin SMEC:
j.malone@curtin.edu.au;v.dawson@curtin.edu.au;b.atweh@curtin.edu.au;t.rickards@curtin.edu.au
t.rickards (interest in on-line delivery, and remote communities)
Curtin Other:
g.gamble@curtin.edu.au (as an enthusiast with skills to improve stack's
authoring system to being more like AiM's)
Greg's Curtin phone is 9266 3482
UWA Education:
helen.wildy@uwa.edu.au (Head of School of Education)
david.andrich@uwa.edu.au (who has interests and skills in Computer Algebra)
mark.pegrum@uwa.edu.au (interests, albeit more modern ones, in e-learning)
grady.venville@uwa.edu.au (secondary science education, and I know maths isn't the
same as science)
UWA Other:
des.hill@uwa.edu.au (as DUGS, UWA Maths, phone 6488 3357)
kevin.judd@uwa.edu.au (only because the question engine in calmaeth
could be connected via "moodle-opaque" to moodle)
s.richardson@ecu.edu.au (someone who has had an involvement with
AiM and calmaeth when at UWA)
The list above is of people in Perth, but others from out of Perth with interests in stack include
Alasdair.McAndrew@vu.edu.au