This paper discusses several linear algebra activities designed to help enhance students' skills in collaborating, exploring mathematics, and linking together abstract and visual ways of approaching mathematics. Most of these activities are short, accessible, engaging, and easy to incorporate into any classroom. In addition, we discuss some…

According to the MAA Instructional Practices Guide, deep learning requires student engagement with content both inside and outside the classroom. Hence, mathematics instructors must work to engage students in the learning experience. Higher education research often equates engaged learning and active learning, but what does engaged learning mean…

Traditional lecturing is the dominant method of teaching mathematics in undergraduate mathematical courses in many countries, whereas active student-centered approaches such as inquiry-based learning have been shown in some instances to be more effective. Most teaching resources (inquiry-based tasks) available at the tertiary level are related to…

We now know how "best" to teach our students -- student-centered learning. Yet many of us face challenges when trying to design courses that are student-centered. In this paper, we present our experience with a Web 2.0 technology, VoiceThread, that has helped us address some of the challenges we have encountered when designing…

The current study evaluated the success of implementing a blended + flipped structure in a Calculus for Life and Management Sciences course. By reimagining two of the three weekly instructional hours as online asynchronous lessons, we redesigned a 200-person section into 30-person sections, with minimal additional instructor resources. Findings…

This article presents an experience in teaching mathematical thinking through games in a math course for non-science majors. The course described here has run twice on the campus of Sam Houston State University and is a combination of escape room pedagogy and game-based pedagogy. From these courses, I note an increased engagement of students with…

Teaching Mathematics to tertiary students can be a challenge to educators, mainly because they must deal with learners' varying levels of readiness. Some of the factors attributing to the variability are learners' perceptions of mathematics, their previous learning experiences, and fear of failure. We implemented a teaching approach to facilitate…

Homework gives students the opportunity to practice new skills in both familiar and unfamiliar situations, and to develop an understanding of related concepts. Although some of these goals can be easily accomplished in online homework, many systems are less useful for handling open-ended questions. Written homework, on the other hand, takes time…

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the American Statistical Association (ASA) have both updated and revised their curriculum guidelines. The guidelines of both associations recommend that students engage in a "capstone" experience, be exposed to applications, and have opportunities to communicate mathematical and…

Research indicates multi-section coordination improves the academic performance of students in STEM education. This paper describes the process of coordination in Precalculus, Calculus 1, and Calculus 2 courses undertaken by a large department that grew from the merger of two institutions through a pilot program and a project grant. Components…

This paper describes the results of a small empirical study (n = 130), in which undergraduate students in the Business Faculty of a UK university were asked to express views and expectations relating to the study of a mathematics. Factor analysis is used to identify latent variables emerging from clusters of the measured variables and these are…

Students' abilities and interests vary dramatically in the college mathematics classroom. How do we teach all of these students effectively? In this paper, we present the Point Reward System (PRS), a new method of assessment that addresses this problem. We designed the PRS with three main goals in mind: to increase the retention rates; to keep all…

Online homework systems, which deliver homework assignments to students and provide real-time feedback on their responses, have the potential to increase student learning in college mathematics classes. However, current research on their effectiveness is inconclusive, with some studies showing gains in student achievement, whereas others report…

Metacognition as a dimension of learning ranks highest in the revised Bloom's Taxonomy of cognitive tasks. In this paper we illustrate how it can be incorporated into a repeated exercise in the mathematics classroom, through a specific case study in the context of a liberal arts mathematics course. Through the semester, students were asked weekly…

Our goal with this paper is three-fold. We want to increase awareness of inquiry-based learning by presenting the strategy we use to develop and implement lessons and activities. We describe our approach to structuring lessons in mathematics in a way that engages the students by using language and constructs with which they are familiar from other…