On the development of Mathematica-based question type plugin for Moodle

Wednesday
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The Boiler House

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We have been using webMathematica-based mathematics e-learning/assessment systems (MATH ON WEB) to implement a blended learning environment at our university for more than ten years. The contents cover all topics of the standard linear algebra and calculus courses for first-year students at Japanese universities. However, our systems are standalone all-in-one systems and isolated from any existing learning management system (e.g., Moodle). If they are seamlessly connected to LMS, then the mathematics teaching and learning environments with these systems become much more comfortable to students and teachers. This is our motivation to develop a Moodle plugin whose question data are compatible with the ones for our systems.

The plug-in we developed is a question type plugin for Moodle which uses Mathematica as the background CAS.

Same as MATH ON WEB, student’s answer is analyzed with Mathematica program, and an appropriate feedback message is shown depending on the result of the analysis. The interface of the plug-in is designed for easy implementation of contents. With it, mathematics teachers who have some experience in programming with Mathematica can implement contents.

Though the current version of the plugin is still a beta release, we will explain the outline of the plugin and demonstrate it at the conference.