EPF is part of the international “ABACUS” teaching project of Aalto University in Finland

Abacus, base in Aalto University in Finland, is an international project that aims to facilitate the use of computer aided formative assessment in higher education and covers all fields relating to engineering mathematics: simple or multivariable calculation, ordinary differential equation, matrices and linear algebra, vector analysis and fundamental probability and statistics. This project is based on problems mainly implemented using STACK. Thanks to the contributions of Jérémy Rouot who works as a teacher-reasearcher at the Troyes IPN Cell, EPF has now access to the electronic STACK assessment system’s database from the MOODLE platform.

The STACK system is a state-of-the-art automatic assessment system for mathematics, sciences and related disciplines. The system is capable of testing a student’s answer in different ways and thus assess questions such as “Give an example of a weird function”. It is also able to classify an answer in the classifications defined by the teacher and can therefore give a very specific feedback on the type of mistake made by the student (common mistake or not).

STACK gives immediate feedback which seems to be appreciated by students.

STACK’s general characteristics are as follow:

• Sophisticated assessment of mathematical expressions
• Emphasis on formative assessment
• Random generating of questions
• Students have to write an answer and are not limited to multiple choices
• A wide array of input types, including work line by line.

In Finland, almost all second-degree institutions are collaborating with this project and offer programs leading to science, technology and engineering and mathematics degrees (STEM).

More on the project: https://abacus.aalto.fi/