IACS Professor Wins Internal Support to Develop Online Tools for Calculus Course

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Matthew Reuter and David Green submit winning proposal

Brook Online Learning Development (S-BOLD) was established last year by SBU’s President and Provost to “support the continuing evolution of educational excellence” by funding innovative ideas for creating online courses and educational tools. This year 13 letters of intent were received with seven being invited to submit full proposals. Of the five winners, IACS/AMS Assistant Professor Matthew Reuter and AMS Associate Professor David Green won for their novel approach to developing online tools to aid students enrolled in AMS 261: Applied Calculus III. 

“The $50K grant will be used to restructure homework assignments for AMS 261, moving parts of them online, so that students can get specialized and real-time feedback on their work. The goal is to help students recognize conceptual misunderstandings and get help well before the exams,” said Professor Reuter 

AMS 261 is an undergraduate course in the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Department that is taught both in the fall and spring semesters, and is consistently registered to capacity with more than 250 students. These online homework assignments and tools will be incrementally rolled-out during the fall 2016 and spring 2017 semesters, when Professors Green and Reuter will be teaching the course (respectively). “It is often difficult to provide meaningful feedback to students in large courses, and we believe online homework problems that respond to students’ responses provide an invaluable opportunity to guide students more effectively,” said Reuter.

The online homework assignments will be evaluated using both student outcomes and opinions. “We hope that these resources will keep students engaged throughout the semester, which should decrease ‘D’/failure/withdrawal rates,” said Reuter.

For more information about the S-BOLD contest, visit http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/onlineed/faculty/sbold.html

For more information about Professor Reuter, visit http://www.iacs.stonybrook.edu/people/faculty/matthew-reuter 

For more information about Professor Green, visit http://www.ams.sunysb.edu/~dfgreen/

For more information about AMS 261, visit http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/ams2/undergraduate/courses/ams261.html