STARMAST: FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions about STARMAST, in no particular order.
If you have any specific questions, please email Tom at tdhc (at) st (dash) andrews (dot) ac (dot) uk.
Student participation
How many students have been a part of this project?
38 so far :) More details of all our contributors can be found on our about page.
How are students compensated for their work on the project?
A student’s time is incredibly valuable, and every contribution they make to this website is appreciated. It’s important that students do not feel exploited for their time and effort, and it’s worth noting that I would not expect students to do this for free.
Every student that has worked on this project has been part of either a Summer Teams Enterprise Project (STEP) or a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP). Every STEP student is credited for their volunteering time with a certificate and an entry on their HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Record) transcript. Since the VIP is a module, students are assessed and given course credit for their participation in the module.
I’m a student. How can I contribute?
If you are a student at the University of St Andrews, then the best way to get involved is via our Vertically Integrated Project, which compensates your work on the project with course credit. Applications for this are open twice a year.
If you are not a student at the University of St Andrews, then please contact tdhc (at) st (dash) andrews (dot) ac (dot) uk to discuss options.
Resources
What is your approach to accessibility?
We aim to provide resources that are accessible and inclusive to as many learners as possible, via the use of multiple output methods and the use of clear and simple language to explain concepts.
How do I give feedback on resources?
There are lots of ways! At the bottom of every page (including this one) is a feedback box where you can put your name, email address, and your feedback. This is then sent to our email account where we can act on the feedback.
You can also email us at starmast (dot) contact (at) gmail (dot) com, which is our community email account run by our student team.
Finally, you can also contact Tom the editor directly at tdhc (at) st (dash) andrews (dot) ac (dot) uk.
How do you ensure quality of your resources?
Over the course of a regular semester, students and supervisor chat every week in a dedicated VIP meeting chatting about how to ensure any produced resources are of the highest-quality. At the end of this semester, students are marked on the quality of their resources (click this link to see the VIP module handbook) and so are incentivized to make sure their writing is as accurate as possible.
After the students submit their work, the editor-in-chief Tom sits down and pores through the resources and edits it for accessibility, clarity, and consistency of style. Once this is done and Tom is satisfied, then the guides will be released. For context, Tom is an education-focused lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews with ten years lecturing experience.
No resource is released without going through this process.
Do you use generative AI in resource creation?
All of the writing in our study guides is completed without the use of large-language models (LLMs), and is 100% the work of the authors on the top of the guide.
In an effort to maximise the efficacy of our online resources while also protecting the time of our authors, some of our interactive figures and calculators are generated using LLMs such as Copilot, ChatGPT and R Shiny Assistant. Any outputs using generative AI are thoroughly checked and tested before being published on the site, as a standard part of the editing process outlined in the previous section.
Can I edit these resources for my own purposes?
Absolutely yes.
Every guide, question, and answer sheet comes with a editable .docx version which you can edit and use for your own ends. In addition, all the source code that generates this website is published on a public GitHub repository.
You are free to distribute, adapt, remix, and build upon the material provided that you:
- give credit to the original writers of the page
- are using your modified material for non-commercial purposes only
- licence any modified material under identical terms.
These are the standard terms of our Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license; for more details, see our licensing pages.
Miscellaneous
What on earth is Cantor’s Confectionery?
STARMAST prides itself on being a context-free mathematics and statistics resource, in order to make sure that mathematics/statistics is accessible to all subjects.
However, there are some cases where context can help; this is particularly true in statistics, where conclusions should be drawn with reference to an over-arching scenario. We wanted to make sure these scenarios would be enjoyed by everybody - and everybody loves desserts!
To that end, we have created a fictional sweet shop called Cantor’s Confectionery to provide context for certain scenarios. Look out for the exciting adventures of this multinational pudding conglomerate!