An Attempt to Correlate Poor Performance in Engineering Mathematics During the First Year of Polytechnic Education with the Grounding Provided in the Student's Secondary Education

Abstract

Students with weak mathematics background need constant and consistent reminders and coaching from lecturers. At the same time, however, these reminders and coaching can be time-consuming and stressful. They may even be inefficient, as these students are used to, and possibly tired of, the usual teaching methods. The usual teaching methods may not appeal to them anymore. Hence, often the effort a lecturer puts in surpasses the results achieved. Universities, institutions, schools, and many educators around the world have developed many on-line tutorial systems to supplement the usual methods of teaching mathematics. This paper will study the effect of an on-line tutorial system developed by Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore on a group of weaker students. This on-line tutorial system was developed using Scientific Notebook, and is known as "Maths-On-Line". This paper is a study on the correlation between the time the students spent on Maths-On-Line versus their final mathematics examination results. The results obtained show that Maths-On-Line had a positive effect on these students and that Maths-On-Line is a useful on-line tutorial system to supplement the normal teaching methods in mathematics.