Teaching mathematics online in the European Area of Higher Education: an instructor's point of view

Abstract

This article first discusses how information technologies are changing the way knowledge is delivered at universities worldwide. Then, the article reviews some of the most popular learning management systems available today and some of the most useful online resources in the areas of Mathematics and Statistics. After that, some long-term experiences regarding the teaching of online courses in those areas at the Open University of Catalonia are discussed. Finally, the article presents the results of a large-scale survey performed in Spain that aims to reflect instructors’ opinions and feelings about potential benefits and challenges of teaching mathematics online, as well as the role of emergent technologies in the context of the European Area of Higher Education. Therefore, this article contributes to the existing literature as an additional reference point, one based on our long-term experience in a large-scale online environment, for discussions involving mathematical e-learning.

Keywords:

• online learning
• mathematical education
• learning management systems
• information technologies in higher education
• mathematical software

Acknowledgements

This work has been partially supported by the HAROSA Knowledge Community of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (http://dpcs.uoc.edu).