Aidan McCall & Zameer Parvez

• MMath Mathematics/MComp (Hons) Comp Sci W Industrial Placement
• Adaptive testing as a tool for diagnosing mathematical proficiency

This mathematical education research project will focus on the research and development of adaptive tests, primarily for use in diagnosing the proficiency of students entering the University into numerate disciplines. It will be a project crossing computing, mathematics, and to some extent engineering.

An adaptive test can guide a student through a network of questions corresponding to specific skills, to determine the student’s level and areas for improvement. A test generates questions based on skills ‘ticked off’ by the student, dynamically generating questions based on previous outcomes in order to get a thorough snapshot of their proficiency.

The project will review recent developments in adaptive and diagnostic testing, and in particular consider the DIAGNOSYS tool developed by Dr John Appleby (project co-supervisor) for diagnostic tests in engineering. Students will help to develop a framework for creating adaptive tests in the University’s mathematical e-assessment system Numbas.

Funding Source: Newcastle University

 Supervisors: Dr Chris Graham, Dr John Appleby, Dr Marie Devlin & Mr Christian Lawson-Perfect