North American Case study

Tests Become Less Time Consuming for Professor of Mathematics with Möbius

Kaleigh
Kaleigh

Challenge

The University of the Virgin Islands was still relying on pen and paper placement tests. They were introduced to online placement testing through Möbius MAA Placement.

Solution

The University began administering its placement tests using the Möbius MAA Placement. The MAA placement tests allow for quick evaluations and are an efficient method of placing students in the correct mathematics courses. Möbius also allows students to practice before the test, receiving instant feedback on their responses.

Result

Dr. Celil Ekici, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, said the school quickly noticed significant gains in terms of efficiency and flexibility in administering the tests. With tests being less time consuming, the University was able to spend more time refining and customizing the materials.

The Details

Möbius MAA Placement enables universities to place incoming students in the right mathematics courses quickly and painlessly using the renowned Mathematical Association of America (MAA) placement tests offered online exclusively through the Möbius testing environment. Correct placement ensures higher success rates for students. Students are more satisfied with the education they are receiving, and instructors can focus on teaching the course instead of dealing with ill-prepared students.

The gains we have made in terms of efficiency and flexibility are enormous. More importantly, our tests are now much less time-consuming, allowing us the flexibility to customize them to our own needs and those of the students. – Dr. Celil Ekici, Assistant Professor of Mathematics

“We are very pleased with Möbius MAA Placement,” said Dr. Celil Ekici, Assistant Professor of Mathematics. “We like both the content and the tool. We are very happy with the quality of the questions created by the MAA, and the technological tools provided by DigitalEd. We like the quality of the customized experience provided by Möbius MAA Placement.”

Before a test can become an MAA standard or calculator-based placement test, it is first administered at select institutions. The results undergo detailed analysis, with modifications and further trials as required. MAA placement tests have high credibility as they have been either constructed by college faculty members, or piloted at various universities over the last three decades.

Möbius MAA Placement also gives universities the ability to access the questions ahead of time, and edit them, if they so wish. They can modify the content, change questions around, as well as do detailed analysis. This level of transparency is unique to the Möbius MAA Placement.

“One aspect of Möbius MAA Placement that we really appreciate is that we can choose a test that is most relevant to the particular course we are trying to accurately place the students in,” said Dr. Ekici. “With other packages that we evaluated, we couldn’t see the question in advance, which was a major concern. With Möbius MAA Placement, we can select questions that are aligned perfectly with the courses we offer. The level of customization is very high in Möbius MAA Placement – we actually took questions from five different tests and created two, which helped us create tests very specific for our courses.”

Because of the power of Möbius, students can practice several times before the test, getting instant feedback on their performance. Teachers can use the system to track students’ performance, analyze data and arrive at trends. This helps them customize lessons and instructions based on the students’ performance. “The data we can obtain by using this system is very powerful,” said Dr. Ekici. “We plan to improve our analytics by creating student profiles to track their performance in key skill sets we identify. The teachers will then use the data to create customized lessons for the classroom that will take the students’ skill level into consideration.”

Dr. Ekici and the University team are pleased with how Möbius MAA Placement has transformed their placement testing. “The gains we have made in terms of efficiency and flexibility are enormous. More importantly, our tests are now much less time consuming, while giving us the flexibility to customize them to our own needs, and those of the students.”

DigitalEd