This miniproject aimed to investigate independent study, through active research of the use and effectiveness of delivering an individualised study module to enhance students’ high-level mathematics learning through an improved ability to reflect on their own learning process. The project team’s experience of such modules is that they can be problematical i.e. they can end up consuming more staff time than had been anticipated, and can result in students not achieving appropriate learning outcomes. This project intended to improve the existing independent study module delivery through: the process of having students reflect on the learning process, in the way that is required of trainee teachers; and, development of multimedia support material, in collaboration with media studies students, to encourage student reflection (for example, videos, web logs, web pages, spreadsheets and computer algebra worksheets).
In level 3 of modular courses it can be difficult to provide students with a full range of modules to meet all needs. It is common practice to offer ‘independent study modules’ to cater for this. These allow students to pursue their interests with only a minimal amount of staff input.
Undergraduate students are often neither good at organising their own learning, nor good at the self-analysis, which is needed for them to become effective learners. This contrasts with the approach within, for example, the teacher training community, where the model of ‘the reflective practitioner’ informs the learning process.
The aim of the project was to identify and compare methods by which students could more effectively learn a mathematical topic that was new to them, through the medium of an independent study module. It was anticipated that the process would, in itself, foster the acquisition of transferable learning skills.
Three independent study modules were written and validated. They were in topics in which expertise was available, but for which there has not been sufficient demand to make them available in the usual undergraduate programme. The topics were Number Theory, Topology and Complex Analysis. The contents of these modules are standard, but the aims, objectives and methods of assessment were designed to be consonant with delivery through independent study.
A substantial guide was produced to help students to adapt to the rather different demands of these modules, compared to those of most traditional mathematics modules. This drew heavily on material from the discipline of mathematical education.
Independent study modules occupy a small, but important part of many mathematics degree programmes. This work offers anecdotal evidence that there may be scope for improving structures, and hence student experiences and outcomes.