Back in August 2016 my colleague Tonya Elliott from the Center for Extended 
Learning wrote a post on Online Math Numbers at Waterloo, and Comparative Judgments as a Teaching Strategy in this space.
In that piece Tonya talked about the thousands of UW students who have taken online UW math courses and of the recognition of excellence received for the educational resources in these courses. Today I present more information about the new online environment named Mobius first introduced there. This platform offers authors and students expanded opportunities for rich, interactive learning.
As examples are three UW-Mobius project collaborations (CEMC, CEL) with the evolving Mobius system available free to the public:
To get a feel for what Mobius can do I’ll describe and link to specific features from each of these sites.
In the Chemistry for Engineers course you will see short (approx 5 minutes) narrated videos and animation. Live self-check concept questions using the ordering question type let students know which part of their answers are right or wrong. Other locations in the course make use of the Maple mathematical engine underlying Mobius allowing students to check their skill at doing calculations. These questions provide a motivating hint if students feel unsure.
The Linear Algebra1 1 Open Math site is designed differently, offering longer 20 minute presentations alternating with live quizzes. Each quiz question has its own template for generating tens or hundreds of different question variations giving students the chance to repeat and master the material.
The example chosen from the CEMC site is an interactive demonstration of the cross product of two vectors. On screen controls allow students to manipulate the size and orientation of two vectors while displaying the vectors and their cross product. This is an example of a Mobius math app. Math apps are great for letting students visualize concepts, experiment with dynamic objects and explore what-if questions.
UW has created thousands of questions for use in our Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering courses. They are all freely available to use in any course you teach. As are the many Math apps on the Maplesoft Math app gallery page and on the Maplesoft shared content Maplecloud web site.
If you are curious about Mobius and want to learn more there is a hands-on seminar in two weeks (Thu Mar 2 11:15 AM), part of CTE’s very popular EdTech week.
You don’t have to wait two weeks though. If you have an idea for a Math app and want help realizing it, want to browse through the question banks, want to see how a lesson is created or just want to play around with Mobius then please get in touch.
Paul Kates
Mathematics Faculty CTE Liaison
pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x37047, MC 6473
