A collaborative project between the University of Waterloo and Maplesoft has won an award from the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE).
The ‘Excellence and Innovation in the Integration of Technology in Educational Practices/Collaboration Award’ acknowledges the Secondary School Courseware project, a free online courseware site designed to support high school math students and teachers in calculus and pre-calculus courses.
The Courseware project is the result of a partnership that combines rich course materials developed by the University with Maple T.A., Maplesoft’s online testing and assessment system, and Maplesoft technology for developing, managing, and displaying dynamic STEM content.
The courseware, unveiled earlier this year, provides a rich selection of freely accessible, engaging content for use by high school teachers and students around the world, and will help prepare students for university-level mathematics courses. The interactive platform allows students to visualize and experiment with concepts in order to deepen their understanding of the course material. Students can access the courseware online for personal review, to supplement their courses in order to hone their skills, or to try enrichment exercises.
“Working with Maplesoft, we were able to break new ground in the development and deployment of the Secondary School Courseware site,” said Ian VanderBurgh, director of the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at Waterloo. “The main goal of this project was to make high-quality mathematics curriculum materials available, free of charge, to students and teachers around the world, to support the vital work that teachers are doing in mathematics classrooms everywhere. This wouldn’t have been possible without the use of Maplesoft technology.”
“Our collaboration with the University of Waterloo is truly a partnership that brings together two different sets of expertise in pursuit of the same vision,” noted Darren McIntyre, vice-president of Business Development at Maplesoft. “While the University excels at providing academic content, our combined efforts bring this concept to the world stage using Maplesoft’s innovative technology tools. We’re grateful for the recognition of this successful partnership. This project is part of Maplesoft’s initiative to help instructors and institutions develop and provide STEM courses online.”
Work is already underway to use the Maplesoft-developed platform in other online courses offered by the University, including courses in core math, optimization, modeling, computer science, and quantum information systems.
To begin using the Secondary School Courseware site today, students and teachers can visit http://courseware.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/. No login or special software is needed to access the courseware.
The CNIE is a national organization of professionals committed to the effective implementation of technology and innovation in education. Their awards recognize excellence in educational processes that make use of technology to advance learning at the local, national and international levels.
