Involving students in creating maths and stats resources

starmast.org

Tom Coleman, University of St Andrews

2025-03-27

About me

  • Lecturer (Education Focused) at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews

  • passionate about language and accessibility in mathematics and statistics

  • enjoys cricket, coffee, and crosswords

Problem

need for accessible maths and stats resources

  • traditional textbooks can be difficult to parse for non-specialists, technically inaccessible, expensive, intimidating…

  • pandemic: sudden shift to online resources for self-study, inconsistent standards in pre-university education, no library access…

  • diverse backgrounds: every country has their own curriculum, language; Masters courses attract wide backgrounds of students…

Solution

  • creating a free-to-use, high-quality bank of inclusive and technically accessible learning resources in mathematics and statistics

    • in addition involving students gives learners agency in their resource creation, teaches transferable skills not often found in maths and stats degrees, obtains diverse perspectives on learning…

  • end product: STARMAST (starmast.org) - St Andrews Resources in Mathematics and Statistics

How?

  • inclusive: strict guide on use of language (‘you’ not ‘we’, nothing easy, simple terms, minimal jargon, avoid context)

  • technically accessible: available for use by all users (screen readable, printable, editable)

    • use of Quarto, outputs to html/word/pdf simultaneously

  • free-to-use: available anywhere at any time, with no cost

Structure

for each topic:

  • study guide: explains the key concepts, contains many examples (and figures, usually Desmos), quick-check problems at the end

  • question sheet and answer sheet

  • printable pdf version and editable/screen-readable Word version provided as standard

  • mp3 narration (now being rolled out)

[also other resources such as fact and proof sheets]

Mechanism: VIP (1/2)

Vertically Integrated Project:

  • multi-year, multi-semester ongoing research project (with some leeway)

  • students in any year can apply

  • awards module credits, and students get a grade for their work

  • allows students to participate in the same project across multiple years

Mechanism: VIP (2/2)

our VIP:

  • small group, weekly meetings, hands-on supervisor involvement

  • attracting wide range of students

    • mathematicians, statisticians, economists, cell biologists, computer scientists, art historians…
    • from first-years to final years

  • assessment: 20% fortnightly reflective logs, 30% posters and group presentation, 50% final portfolio and reflective report

VIP inputs from students

  • website backend: domain name, security, search engine optimisation, hosting, custom website style, cookies, analytics, feedback boxes, emails…

  • branding and marketing: colour scheme, logo, outreach plans, social media account (follow us @starmast_ on instagram), ads and posters…

  • accessibility work: automatic narration of guides, interactive figures (flow-chart for hypothesis testing), built-in graphical calculators (desmos)…

  • content: guides on algebra, geometry, calculus, stats…

Future plans

  • more content

    • 30+ guides hopefully by end of summer (and then more than that).
    • videos, podcasts, interactivity…

  • get the site out there!

    • market inside the University and outside the University (conferences, maths support networks :), schools, libraries…)

  • way off in the distance: funding, social enterprise(?)

Thank you for listening!