Background The distance learning during the Corona pandemic was a major challenge for both, students and teachers (Meyer, 2020). For Germany, the JIMplus study (2020) shows that teaching and learning at secondary level during the Corona pandemic has been conducted mostly asynchronously regarding time and location. This separation presupposes a high degree of students’ self-organization due to the lack of face-to-face communication. However, the importance of personal support and feedback from the teacher for students’ distance learning is strongly emphasized (Meyer, 2020). Concerning that under-achieving students are already overstrained to self-organize their daily learning at home, respectively to deal adequately with the given tasks, a concept for distance education is urgently needed. One promising approach to reduce student’s self-organization of the individual learning is the synchronization of the teaching process by using digital tools: As in the classroom situation, students should be able to ask questions which can immediately be answered by the teacher and get a direct feedback on their solution. By implication, the usage of digital media should enable teachers to monitor student’s learning progress and to provide real-time support. The Digital Classroom of the MathCityMap (MCM) system allows precisely the described synchronous distance learning and thus meets some requirements of distance learning situations (Barlovits, Jablonski, Milicic & Ludwig, 2020). However, the MCM platform has been developed for the creation of outdoor mathematical learning paths, so-called math trails. The idea of the ASYMPTOTE project is to adopt this system to the needs of distance learning. Following the idea of the successfully MCM system, the ASYMPTOTE project consists of a web portal and an app. It will enable teachers to conduct synchronous and adaptive online education in mathematics with a low barrier for students - only a smartphone is required on their side. In the project, a webportal with a database of tasks (including task formulation, hints and sample solution) on different learning topics on secondary and university level will be created. In the web portal teachers can select prepared tasks or create their own tasks. By working on a digital learning path on the smartphone, students receive systemic and synchronous feedback on their entered solution and work on tasks adopted to their individual learning progress. In addition, it provides a Learning Analytics tool for an effective diagnosis and evaluation of their students' progress. It further allows assessment and the use of adaptive elements in online distance learning. Apart from this software and best practice material, the ASYMPTOTE project educates lecturers, university students and teachers in the usage of the tool so that they can use it in their (future) teaching in the best possible way. Aims and Activities The aims and activities of the project are reached by the following intellectual outputs: • IO1: ASYMPTOTE Web Portal • IO2: ASYMPTOTE App • IO3: Generic Tasks on University Level • IO4: Generic Tasks on Secondary Level • IO5: Long-Term Curriculum and MOOC • IO6: Research and Validation Consortium The consortium contains six partners from five European countries. All of them will contribute to the project in different ways. We have experts for app programming, teacher trainings, university teaching, MOOCs, mathematics tasks, dissemination and public relations. The consortium includes universities, a teacher association and a company. Planned activities - Kick-off meeting and two project meetings to bring together developed materials, share ideas and experiences, as well as planning the activities for the next year - Final meeting including the project conference “Synchronous Online and Distance Learning in STEM Education” (IO6) to present the research outputs of the project and related research - Intensive Study Program and Multiplier Event (teacher training) to disseminate the project and educate lecturers and (future) teachers - Developing and carrying out a long-term curriculum and MOOC (IO5) to enrich and disseminate the project idea and results Results and impact At the end of the two-year lasting strategic partnership, we provide a platform (IO1) and app (IO2) for synchronous online learning in different countries, which enables teachers and university lecturers to conduct mathematical online learning. While students work on the digital learning path, the adaptive system selects tasks that fit their individual learning level. Furthermore, a handbook (IO4) is created to support teachers and lecturers in conducting lessons within the ASYMPTOTE system. Tasks are available in the languages English, German, Spanish, Greek, Italian and Portuguese from secondary (IO4) to university level (IO3). They are the basis for the education of university students in their future online mathematics teaching (IO5).
In view of (i) and (ii), ASYMPTOTE aimed to provide a digital learning environment for synchronous communication and micro-adaptive task allocation (cf. Plass & Pawar, 2020). Hereby, the system refers to the idea of ITS and computer-based learning environments (CBLE) (cf. Lichti & Roth, 2018). Concerning (ii) and (iii), we focused on developing an adaptive and technically low-barrier system providing an open-available database and allowing personal feedback by the teacher and automatic feedback by the system. To ensure the user-friendliness of ASYMPTOTE, the technical development was continuously monitored on a scientific level. Regarding (iv), and in view of the high number of mobile users in Europe (Deloitte, 2017), we followed a low threshold mobile learning approach – only a smartphone or tablet with active internet connection is required on the student’s side to use ASYMPTOTE. In view of (v), we analysed the issues of Covid-19 distance education and set up a theoretical framework in line with relevant literature (cf. Barlovits et al., 2022a). Lastly, we support educators by providing a comprehensive amount of self-learning material, e.g., video tutorials and a manual on how to use the system.
The shift from the classroom situation to distance learning due to Covid-19 pandemic was a major challenge for students and teachers (Bakker & Wagner, 2020). During the project lifetime, transnational studies (Aldon et al., 2021; Drijvers et al., 2021) showed issues of teaching and learning during the pandemic: (i) a loss of personal interaction and a high degree asynchronous delivery of education regarding time and location; (ii) lack of adequate formative assessment and feedback given by a person (the teacher) or a system such as an intelligent tutoring system (ITS); (iii) deficit of available curricular resources and ready-to-teach materials, in view of adaptivity and internal differentiation on the one hand and regarding tasks going beyond pure computational algorithms as modelling or reasoning tasks; (iv) lack of technical equipment by students to participate in online education, linked to the social status of households; (v) lack of digital competencies of teachers and students to adequately deal with the used digital tools. A more detailed view on these online teaching issues in all five project countries can be found in Barlovits et al. (2022a). The above-named issues should be addressed by the ASYMPTOTE project.