The Math-Bridge project aimed to address declining math skills and high dropout rates in STEM fields across the EU. It developed an online platform containing over 10,000 math learning objects in 7 languages. Evaluation of over 3,000 students across 9 universities found that the platform helped students learn, they enjoyed using it, and it was an effective e-learning tool. The Math-Bridge community continues using and expanding the platform.

1. Math-Bridge:
Technology-Enhanced Learning
on the European Scale
Dr. Sergey Sosnovsky

2. Project info
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• Supported by the eContentplus program (budget ~ 3.5
mil.)
• Duration: from 01.05.09 to 31.01.12
• Partners: 9 universities + 2 companies from 7 EU
countries

3. Motivation1
• Numbers of graduates in engineering disciplines is dropping all
accross EU.
In Germany: from 52.278 (1996) to 31.000 (2002)
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4. Motivation2
• Drop-out rates of students in engineering and science
programs across the EU vary from 15-40%
• Lack of mathematics competencies is identified as one
of the major reasons
• Existing remedial courses suffer from several problems:
– unilingual content
– little interactivity
– not interoperable, not standard compliant
– not for all colleges and universities
• Bridge the gap between schools and higher education in
Europe by developing the pan-European repository of
remedial content + adaptive platform for accessing it
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5. Project objectives
• Enhance existing European content collections
• Implement them in interoperable format
• Provide multi-lingual and multi-cultural access
(English, German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Dutch,
Hungarian)
• Customize adaptive e-Learning system ActiveMath
(developed at CeLTech) into the Math-Bridge platform
• Integrate Math-Bridge with existing assessment tools
and LMS
• Evaluate Math-Bridge platform
• Form the user community and disseminate project
results
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6. Project Results
Content & Knowledge Base
• Largest in EU Collection of Math Bridging Content
– Sliced into Individual Learning Objects (>10 000)
– Sharable Formats (XML, RDF, OWL)
– Multilingual/Multicultural (7 languages)
– Annotated with Metadata (OMDoc, LOM, Dublic Core)
– Interactive Learning Experience (>5 000 exercises)
• Math-Bridge Ontology
– 600 concepts formalizing remedial mathematics
• Notation Census
– Full set of mathematical notations for 7 Languages for
all concepts of the Math-Bridge Ontology
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7. Project Results
Advanced Platform for Math Courses
• Student Functionality
– Learning Content Presentation
– Personalized Course Generation
– Semantic Search
– User Feedback Infrastructure
– Adaptive Navigation Support
• Teacher/Administrator Functionality
– Student Management
– Group Management
– Server Management
– Reporting Tool
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8. Project Results
Large-Scale Evaluation of Math-Bridge
• >3000 students from 9 universities and 7
countries
• Different scenarios:
– full e-Learning,
– blended learning,
– supplementary tool in a regular course
• Almost 300 000 page access within Math-Bridge
• Main result:
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Math-Bridge
Helps Students
Learn
Students Like
Math-Bridge
Math-
Bridge
is an
Effective
e-Learning
Platform

9. Project Results
Community and Exploitation
• Math-Bridge Community:
– 11 full-time partners
– > 40 associated partners
• Math-Bridge is regularly used for teaching bridging
courses in several EU universities (last count: 9
universities from 6 countries)
• Follow-up projects:
– Kompetenzbrücken (European Regional Development Fund)
– MetaMath (Tempus IV)
– MathGeAr (Tempus IV)
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10. www.math-bridge.org

11. Intelligent Problem Solving Support
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12. Personalized Course Generation
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13. Adaptive Navigation
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