Meta Keijzer-de Ruijter is a Project Manager for Digital Testing at TU Delft, an institution that is at the forefront of the digital revolution in academic institutions. Meta has been using Maple T.A. for years, and offered to provide her insight on the role that automated testing & assessment played in improving student pass rates at TU Delft.

Modern technology is transforming many aspects of the world we live in, including education. At TU Delft in the Netherlands, we have taken a leadership role in transforming learning through the use of technology. Our ambition is to get to a point where we are offering fully digitalized degree programs and we believe digital testing and assessment can play an important role in this process.

A few years ago we launched a project with the goal of using digital testing to drastically improve the pass rates in our programs. Digital testing helps organize testing more efficiently for a larger number of students, addressing issues of overcrowded classrooms, and high teaching workloads. To better facilitate this transformation, we decided to adopt Maple T.A., the online testing and assessment suite from Maplesoft. Maple T.A. also provides anytime/anywhere testing, allowing students to take tests digitally, even from remote locations.

Regular and repeated testing produces the best learning results because progressive monitoring offers instructors the possibility of making adjustments throughout the course. The randomization feature in Maple T.A. provides each student with an individual set of problems, reducing the likelihood that answers will be copied. Though Maple T.A. is specialized in mathematics, it also supports more common question types like multiple choice, multiple selection, fill-in-the-blanks and hot spot. Maple T.A.’s question randomization, possibilities for multiple response fields per question and question workflow (adaptive questions) are superior to other options. By offering regular homework assignments and analyzing the results, we gain better insight into the progress of students and the topics that students perceive as difficult. Our lecturers can use this insight to decide whether to repeat particular material or to offer it in another manner. In many courses, preparing and reviewing practice tests comprise an important, yet time-consuming task for lecturers, and Maple T.A. alleviates that burden.

At TU Delft, we require all first-year students to take a math entry test using Maple T.A in order to assess the required level of math. Since the assessment of the student’s ability is so heavily dependent upon qualifying tests, it is extremely important for the test to be completed under controlled conditions. In Maple T.A., it is easy to generate multiple versions of the test questions without increasing the burden of review, as the tests are graded immediately. Students that fail the entry test are offered a remedial course in which they receive explanations and complete exercises, under the supervision of student assistants. The use of Maple T.A. facilitates this process without placing additional burden on the teacher. When the practice tests and the associated feedback are placed in a shared item bank in Maple T.A., teachers are able to offer additional practice materials to students with little effort. It makes it considerably easier on us as teachers to be able to use a variety of question types, thus creating a varied test.

Each semester, TU Delft offers an English placement test that is taken by approximately 200 students and 50 PhD candidates, in which students are required to formulate their reasons for their program choices or research topics. It used to take four lecturers working full-time for two days to mark the tests and report the results to participants in a timely manner. The digitization of this test has saved us considerable time. The hundred fill-in-the-blank questions are now marked automatically, and we no longer have to decipher handwriting for the open questions!

TU Delft is not alone in its emphasis on digital testing; it has a prominent position on the agendas of many institutions in Europe and elsewhere. These institutions are intensively involved in improving, expanding and advocating the positive results from digital testing and digital learning experiences. Online education solutions like Maple T.A. are playing a key role in improving the quality of digital offerings at institutions.

In the recent years much software has undergone a change towards allowing for better sharing of documents. As is the case with other software as well, the users are no longer mainly single persons sitting in a dark corner doing their own stuff. Luckily Maplesoft has taken an important step in that direction too by introducing MapleCloud some years ago. This means that it is now possible quite easily to discuss calculations done in Maple in the classroom. One student uploads and the Teacher can find the document seconds later on his own computer connected to a Projector and show the student's solutions for the other  students in the classroom. That's indeed great! Maple is however lacking in one important aspect: It's Graphics User Interface (GUI) is not completely ready to for that challenge! I noticed that quite recently when the entire teaching staff received new netbooks: 14 inch Lenovo Yoga X1 with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. From factory defaults text zoom was set to 200%. Without it, text would be too small in all applications used on the computer. The Microsoft Office package and most other software has adapted to this new situation dealing with high variation in the users screen resolutions, but not Maplesoft:

1. Plots and Images inserted become very small
2. Open File dialogs and the like contain shortened text for folder names ... (you actually have to guess what the folders are)
3. Help menus are cluttered up and difficult to read.

I show screen images of all three types below.

I know it is possible to make plots larger by using the option size, but since it relies on pixels it doesn't work when documents are shared between students and teachers. You cannot expect the receiving student/teacher to make a lot of changes in the document just to be able to read it. It will completely destroy the workflow!

Why doesn't Maplesoft allow for letting documents display proportionally on the users computer like so many other programs do? Why do it need to be in pixels? If it is possible to make it proportional, it would also solve another issue: Making prints (to a printer or to pdf) look more like they do on the screen than is the case at present.

I really hope Maplesoft will address this GUI challenge, because I am sure the issue will pile up quite rapidly. Due to higher costs, most laptops/netbooks among students don't have that high resolution compared to computer dimensions at the moment, but we already have received a few remarks from students owning such computers. Very soon those highend solution computers will dive into the consumer market and become very common.

I have mentioned this important GUI issue in the beta-testing group, but I don't think those groups really are adapted to discussions, more bug fixes. Therefore I have made this Post in the hope that some Maple users and some chief developers will comment on it!
     

Now I have criticized the Maple GUI, I also feel urged to tell in what departments I think Maple really excels:

1. The Document-structure is great. One can produce good looking documents containing 'written math' (inactive math) and/or 'calculated math'. All-in-one! Other competting software does need one to handle things separatly.
2. Sections and subsections. We have actually started using Maple to create documents containing entire chapters or surveys of mathematics or physics subjects, helping students to get a better overview. I am pretty sure the Workbook tool also will help here.
3. Calculations are all connected. One can recalculate the document or parts of it, eventually using new parameters. Using Maple for performing matematical experiments. Mathematical experiments is a method entering more into the different mathematics curriculums.
4. MapleCloud. Easy sharing of documents among students and teachers.
5. Interactive possibilities through the Explore command and other commands. Math Apps as well.
6. Besides that mathematical symbols can be accessed from the keyboard, they can also be accessed from palettes by less experinced users.  
7. Good choice by Maple to let the user globally decide the size text and math is displayed in Maple - set globally in the menu Tools < Options.
8. Maple can handle units in Physics
9. Maple has World-Class capabilities. If you have a mathematical problem, Maple can probably handle it. You just need to figure out how.
10. etc.

Small plots:

Shortened dialog text:

Cluttered help menus:

Regards,

Erik

This worksheet is designed to develop engineering exercises with Maple applications. You should know the theory before using these applications. It is designed to solve problems faster. I hope you use something that is fully developed with embedded components.

In Spanish

Vector_Force.mw

Vector_Force_updated.mw

Lenin Araujo Castillo

Ambassador Of Maple

I am very pleased to announce a new user community centered around Maplesoft's online testing and assessment and courseware products. The new site is specifically for instructors and administrators currently using Maple T.A. or Möbius. This community of users are a small, specialised group who we want to bring together so they can share ideas and best practices. To find the community, go to either mapletacommunity.com or mobiuscommunity.com.

"The Maple T.A. Community has grown organically to support new developers as they pool their knowledge and queries. This has resulted in a fluid searchable structure, with answers available for all levels of question - from beginner to pushing the frontiers of what Maple T.A. has been designed to do. Our summer student interns rely on the Community as they become proficient in their question writing skills - and many have become contributors as they realise that they are in a position to teach others. Opening it out more broadly will be great in sharing good practice on a 'need to know now' basis.”

----Professor Nicola Wilkin, University of Birmingham

What content is in the community?

The community has many posts from active Maple T.A. and Möbius users from beginners to advanced users. The site is broken down into categories like 'Best Practices' - longer form posts that cover a broader concept in more detail and 'Quick Code snippets' that are small piece of code that you can drop straight into your question algorithms.

Much of the content is openly available and can be found by google, however there is additional content that can only be accessed by members of the community, such as the Maple T.A. school material which teaches you how to author content in Maple T.A. and Möbius.

Who runs the community

The community is jointly run by users based at the University of Birmingham, TU Wien, The University of Turin and TU Delft.

How does this fit into Mapleprimes?

It began as an offshoot of a private, internal customer forum. As this community grows, the ultimate goal is to eventually roll it into MaplePrimes proper. But this alternative site gave us the quickest way to get up and running. Maple T.A. and Möbius questions and posts are still welcome on MaplePrimes, and will continue to be monitored by Maplesoft.

How do I access the community?

You can find the community by going to either mapletacommunity.com or mobiuscommunity.com.

Where else can I get support for Maple T.A. and Mobiüs?

Official support for Maple T.A. and Möbius is provided by the wonderful Customer Success Team at Maplesoft. You can contact them at help@maplesoft.com. For other contact methods see www.maplesoft.com/support/.

I am pleased to announce the public release of Möbius, the online courseware environment that focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. After months of extensive pilot testing at select leading academic institutions around the world, Möbius is now available to everyone for your online learning needs.

We are very excited about Möbius. As you can imagine, many of us here at Maplesoft have backgrounds in STEM fields, and we are truly excited to be working on a project that gives students a hands-on approach to learning math-based content.  You can’t learn math (or science, or engineering, or …) just by reading about it or listening to someone talk about it. You have to do it, and that’s what Möbius lets students do, online, with instant feedback.  Not only can students explore concepts interactively, but they can find out immediately what they’ve understood and what they haven’t - not a few hours after the lecture as they are reviewing their notes, not two weeks later when they get their assignments back, but while they are in the middle of learning the lesson.

During its pilot phase, Möbius was used by multiple institutions around the world for a variety of projects, such as preparing students in advance for their first year math and engineering courses, and for complete online courses.  Over one hundred thousand students have already used Möbius, and the experiences of these students and their instructors has fed back into the development process, resulting in this public release.  You can read about the experiences of the University of Waterloo, the University of Birmingham, and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics on our web site.

We are also happy to announce that Maplesoft has partnered with the University of Waterloo, one of the largest institutions in the world for STEM education, to provide institutions and professors with rich online courses and materials that enable students to learn by doing.  These Möbius courses are created by experts at the University of Waterloo for use by their own students and for their outreach programs, and will be made available to other Möbius users.  Course materials range from late high school to the graduate level, with initial offerings available soon and many more to follow.

Visit the Möbius section of our web site for lots more information, including videos, whitepapers, case studies, and upcoming user summits.

Hi everybody,

The Collatz conjecture can be used to give students a taste of a topic in Number Theory.  See the Wikipedia article for a good explaination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collatz_conjecture

Also, a conjecture is something that is probrably true.  Enjoy my little Maple procedure.  (in .mw and .pdf forms)

Collatz_third_time.mw

Collatz_third_time.pdf

Comments are appreciated.

Matt

Here is a problem from SEEMOUS 2017 (South Eastern European Mathematical Olympiad for University Students)
which Maple can solve (with a little help).

For k a fixed nonnegative integer, compute:

Sum( binomial(i,k) * ( exp(1) - Sum(1/j!, j=0..i) ), i=k..infinity );

(It is the last one, theoretically the most difficult.)

Application that allows us to measure the reliability of a group of data through a row and columns called cronbach alpha at the same time to measure the correlation of items through the pearson correlation of even and odd items. It can run on maple 18 to maple 2017. This will be useful when we are developing a thesis in the statistical part.

In Spanish

StatisticsSocialCronbachPearson.zip

Lenin Araujo Castillo

Ambassador of Maple

   Maplesoft aims to promote innovation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in high school students by partnering with various organizations, and sponsoring initiatives in education, research and innovation. Every year, Maplesoft commits time, funds and people to enhance the quality of math-based learning and discovery and to encourage high school students to strengthen their math skills.

   One such organization we partner with is The Perimeter Institute, a leading centre for scientific research, training and educational outreach in foundational theoretical physics.  Maplesoft currently serves as its Educational Outreach Champion, supporting various initiatives that promote math learning and exploration. Perhaps the most popular of its student outreach program is the annual International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP), a two-week camp that brings together 40 exceptional students from high schools across the globe.  Each year students receive a complimentary copy of Maple, and use the product to practice and strengthen their math skills.  The ISSYP program also uses Möbius, the comprehensive online STEM courseware platform from Maplesoft, to offer preparatory course materials to students.  Completing lessons in Möbius aid in making the summer program a more productive and dynamic experience for the students.

International Summer School for Young Scientists at Perimeter Institute

   Who Wants to Be a Mathematician is a competition organized by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for high school students in North America. Maplesoft has been a sponsor of the contest for many years.  Maple T.A., the testing and assessment tool by Maplesoft, is used to administer the tests online, saving significant time and money for the organizers. When Maplesoft first introduced Maple T.A. to the contest, taking the competition from pen-and-paper tests to online tests, the number of contestants doubled, with about 2000 students participating in the contest. Maplesoft also donates prizes to the games in order to promote the use and love of math by high school students.  This year will be first time the competition moves international. Six students in the UK took the Round 2 qualifying test, with the use of Maple T.A., and qualified for the live, on-stage finals of the UK edition of the competition that took place at the 2017 Maths Fest in London. Maplesoft is also supporting the spread of the WWTBAM contest to Canada in 2017.

Who Wants to be a Mathematician finals

Maplesoft also sponsors two outreach initiatives in Texas A&M University.  The Summer Educational Enrichment (SEE) Math Program is a summer workshop attended by gifted middle school students. Students spend two weeks exploring ideas such as algebra, geometry, graph theory, and topology.  The University also conducts the Integral Bee every year, a math based contest for high school students.

In addition to the above key projects, throughout the year Maplesoft also sponsors and is associated with a number of other competitions, conferences, and educational initiatives. A few of these are listed below.

• The Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair is a yearly, statewide science and engineering fair open to all 7th through 12th grade students.  An important objective of their program is to attract young people to careers in science and engineering while developing skills essential to critical thinking.
• FIRST Robotics Competition is a high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students and mentors work during a six-week period to build game-playing robots that weigh up to 120 pounds.

FIRSTRobotics Competition

• ScienceExpo Conference is a student-run event that engages students with STEM-related opportunities and workshops
• SWATposium is an annual robotics conference that brings together nearly 40 First Robotic Competition teams from both Canada and the United States for a day of guest speakers, workshops and social activities.

SWATposium

• FIRST LEGO League gives elementary and middle school students and their adult coaches the opportunity to work and create together to solve a common problem.

FIRST LEGO League at St. Luke's School in Waterloo

   Maplesoft’s objective of these sponsorships is to support those who inspire and channel young minds to be STEM focussed. By engaging them in exciting contests and programs the hope is that they build science, engineering, and technology skills at a young age and grow to be innovators and technology leaders of tomorrow.

The distance from the point to the surface easily calculated using the NLPSolve of Optimization package. If the point is not special, we will find for it a point on the surface, the distance between these two points is the shortest between the selected point and the surface.
Two examples:  the implicit surface and the parametric surface.
To test, we restore the normals from the  calculated  points (red) by using analytical equations.
DISTANCE_TO_SURFACE.mw

In the present work it has been shown how Maple helps in the teaching of Mathematics in the different subjects that it has. Using a Maple worksheet as if it were a class preparation notebook could develop problems such as: Vector Analysis, EDO, EDP, Statistics, Algebra, Geometry, etc., among others; Taking as a method of solution the clickable-mathpopup, the right click (contextual) or at best embedded components. No criteria or prerequisite is needed to use Maple; Rather than being willing to forget the traditional slate and down and replace it with dynamic leaves that maple offers us; To achieve excellent academic profiles both individually and in groups. The proprietary methods are used to develop applications (math-apps) being a professional criterion; That is to say, according to the problematic reality, we are looking for enduring interactive solutions. Here we use the graphical algorithm and the block diagram as a solution proposal but not as something obligatory to implement solutions. We take as a teaching-learning measure the results of our students in the ability to analyze and interpret the results; Since in the times of calculation; Maple helps tremendously; Opening up this way to train students competent in basic sciences and engineering.

II_SEMINARIO_UNT_2017.pdf

In Spanish

Lenin Araujo Castillo

Ambassador of Maple - Perú

In the creation of this animation the technique from here  was used.

The code of this animation:

with(plots): with(plottools):
SmallHeart:=plot([1/20*sin(t)^3, 1/20*(13*cos(t)/16-5*cos(2*t)/16-2*cos(3*t)/16-cos(4*t)/16), t = 0 .. 2*Pi], color = "Red", thickness=3, filled):
F:=t->[sin(t)^3, 13*cos(t)/16-5*cos(2*t)/16-2*cos(3*t)/16-cos(4*t)/16]:
Gf:=display(translate(SmallHeart, 0,0.37)):
Gl:=display(translate(SmallHeart, 0,-1)):
G:=t->display(translate(SmallHeart, F(t)[])):
A:=display(seq(display(op([Gf,seq(G(-Pi/20*t), t=3..k),seq(G(Pi/20*t), t=3..k)]))$4,k=2..17),display(op([Gf,seq(G(-Pi/20*t), t=3..17),seq(G(Pi/20*t), t=3..17),Gl]))$30, insequence=true, size=[600,600]):
B:=animate(textplot,[[-0.6,0.25, "Happy"[1..round(n)]],color="Orange", font=[times,bolditalic,40], align=right],n=0..5,frames=18, paraminfo=false):
C:=animate(textplot,[[-0.2,0, "Valentine's"[1..round(n)]],color=green, font=[times,bolditalic,40], align=right],n=1..11,frames=35, paraminfo=false):
E:=animate(textplot,[[-0.3,-0.25, "Day!"[1..round(n)]],color="Blue", font=[times,bolditalic,40], align=right],n=1..4,frames=41, paraminfo=false):
T:=display([B, display(op([1,-1,1],B),C), display(op([1,-1,1],B),op([1,-1,1],C),E)], insequence=true):
K:=display(A, T, axes=none):
K;

The last frame of this animation:

display(op([1,-1],K), size=[600,600], axes=none);  # The last frame

ValentinelDay.mw
 

Edit. The code was edited - the number of frames has been increased.

Suppose we have some simple animations. Our goal - to build a more complex animation, combining the original animations in different ways.
We show how to do it on the example of the three animations. The technique is general and can be applied to any number of animations.

Here are the three simple animations:

restart;
with(plots):
A:=animate(plot, [sin(x), x=-Pi..a, color=red, thickness=3], a=-Pi..Pi):
B:=animate(plot, [x^2-1, x=-2..a, thickness=3, color=green], a=-2..2): 
C:=animate(plot, [[4*cos(t),4*sin(t), t=0..a], color=blue, thickness=3], a=0..2*Pi):
 

In Example 1 all three animation executed simultaneously:

display([A, B, C], view=[-4..4,-4..4]);

In Example 2, the same animation performed sequentially. Note that the previous animation disappears completely when the next one begins to execute:

display([A, B, C], insequence);

Below we show how to save the last frame of every previous animation into subsequent animations:

display([A, display(op([1,-1,1],A),B), display(op([1,-1,1],A),op([1,-1,1],B),C)], insequence);

Using this technique, we can anyhow combine the original animations. For example, in the following example at firstly animations  A  and  B  are executed simultaneously, afterwards C is executed:

display([display(A, B), display(op([1,-1,1],A),op([1,-1,1],B),C)], insequence);

The last example in 3D I have taken from here:

restart;
with(plots):
A:=animate(plot3d,[[2*cos(phi),2*sin(phi),z], z =0..a, phi=0..2*Pi, style=surface, color=red], a=0..5):
B:=animate(plot3d,[[(2+6/5*(z-5))*cos(phi), (2+6/5*(z-5))*sin(phi),z], z=5..a, phi=0..2*Pi, style=surface, color=blue], a=5..10):
C:=animate(plot3d,[[8*cos(phi),8*sin(phi),z], z =10..a, phi=0..2*Pi, style=surface, color=green], a=10..20):
display([A, display(op([1,-1,1],A),B), display(op([1,-1,1],A),op([1,-1,1],B),C)], insequence, scaling=constrained, axes=normal);

AA.mw

I am pleased to announce that we have just released a significant update to Maple T.A. 2016, our online assessment system.

Maple T.A. 2016.1 includes a wide range of features and improvements that have been requested by customers, including new options for questions and assignments, improved content management, and enhanced integration with course management systems. It also includes a substantial number of small enhancements and corrections across all areas of the product, providing improved responsiveness, more efficient load handling, and smoother workflow for instructors and students.

For more information, visit What’s New in Maple T.A.

Jonny Zivku
Product Manager, Online Education Products

HI MaplePrimes.com and other watchers,

Please enjoy the attaced files about combinatorics.
You may already know what '4 choose 3' is.

an_excercise_in_combinatorics.mw

an_excercise_in_combinatorics.pdf

Hopefully this can be useful to the casual mathematical observer.

Regards,

Matt