| MER Manual
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| Table of Contents
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Current Organizing Committee and Contributors
- Contact email: mer-wiki (at) math (dot) ubc (dot) ca
- Committee Heads:
- Math Grad committee rep:
- Webmaster:
- Advisory members:
Citing the MER wiki in a CV or Resume
Christina says: I list my work on the wiki under either "Relevant Experience" or "Other Educational Experience" (depending on the context), with a little blurb that reads something like:
- Mathematics Wiki Manager
- Co-managing an online, open educational resource wiki aimed at first-year students in math courses at the University of British Columbia.
- Developing resource architecture, appearance, and documentation to improve usability.
- Designing surveys and coordinating a study to measure resource effectiveness.
- Successfully authored a grant application for evaluation and development funding.
Carmen says: Though I've never used my CV - I have listed this under professional service. My CV is available on my webpage for those interested to see it.
Bernhard says: I list MER under "Side Projects" and mention the skills MediaWiki, JavaScript, CSS, and my tasks as Founding member, Head of organizing committee, Project manager, Web developer. My short summary is
- Reaches >80% of the several thousand first year UBC students that take math courses.
- Over a million pageviews and students cummulatively spent 4.5 years on the resource in the first 2 years after inception.
- Crashed the UBC server during the April 2014 exam period because too many users tried to access the MER webpage.
Other ideas for citation may be the number of solutions you've written (if you know!) or other ways you've contributed to the wiki. Please add ideas/what you currently use!
History of the MER wiki
| Jan - Aug 2015 (Winter Term 2, 2014-2015 school year, summer 2015)
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Exams finished between 20150101-20150831 (YYYYMMDD)
• MATH220/December 2009
• MATH220/December 2010
• MATH103/April 2014
• MATH105/April 2014
• MATH110/April 2014
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| Sep - Dec 2014 (Winter Term 1, 2014-2015 school year)
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- On 2014-09-25 we put a more modern design on our front page. Mainly developed by Christina Koch. Later Will Thompson gave the layout further refining touches.
- At the 2014 Canadian Mathematical Society meeting Carmen Bruni and Bernhard Konrad presented a poster about MER. Carmen Bruni also gave a talk in the session Undergraduate Mathematics Education in 21st Century: Rethinking Curriculum and looked sharp!
- Bernhard Konrad wrote developed a Python Script to extract the MediaWiki source code for all question content. The content is compiled to LaTeX using Pypandoc.
- Isabell Graf refined the Python Script and developed an algorithm to extract only the final answer from the full solution. This feature was requested by several of the FL-TLEF interviewees. The resulting pdfs are available for download here, and were downloaded more than 8500 times during the exam period!
- Several waves of email to undergraduates were sent to advertise for MER and to recruit students to take our online survey and be interviewed. Thanks to Jiao Ji, Warren Code and the Math Secretaries.
- As part of our FL-TLEF study Jiao Ji interviewed 15 students, with help from Bernhard Konrad, Carmen Bruni, Michael Lindstrom and Iain Moyles. Carmen Bruni and Bernhard Konrad also helped to transcribe the recorded audio.
- Building on previous work, Bernhard Konrad started to organize the tags into a natural hierarchy.
- Sadly, Christina Koch is leaving the MER committee for her new job in the US. Good luck Christina, and thank you for your tremendous work and commitment to pushing this project forward!
- The following 5 exams were completed:
- MATH100 - December 2013
- MATH102 - December 2013
- MATH104 - December 2013
- MATH110 - December 2013
- MATH307 - December 2010
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| Summer 2014
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- The MER wiki is mentioned as a prime example of user-driven innovation in higher education. Read the full article here.
- We presented a poster at the Flexible Learning Open House at UBC on June 10th: Christina Koch, Bernhard Konrad, Iain Moyles, Michael Lindstrom.
- We successfully interview several candidates for the MER FL-TLEF RA research position and decide to hire Jiao Ji! Congratulations and let the studies begin! We are very proud of our first employee.
- Our Ethics application is approved, we can start to roll out our research study in the coming term. Thank you to Jiao Ji, Michael Lindstrom, Bernhard Konrad, Carmen Bruni, Iain Moyles, Christina Koch and Will Thompson.
- No more guessing on which topics you need to master: Course pages now display all the topics of the questions in that course. This idea was brought up by Carmen Bruni and implemented using dpl and JavaScript by Bernhard Konrad.
- The new version of the Android App automatically recognizes newly solved questions and exams by connecting with an online SQL database, implemented by Bernhard Konrad and Isabell Graf.
- Will Thompson made the results of our April 2014 Satisfaction Evaluation available.
- Bernhard Konrad and Will Thompson made the data analysis of our google analytic click statistics available on our Usage page.
- The following 5 exams were completed
- MATH312 - December 2009 & December 2012
- MATH307 - December 2008
- MATH200 - December 2011 & April 2012
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| Jan - Apr 2014 (Winter Term 2, 2013-2014 school year)
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- We met with the AVP of the AMS to discuss common interests of this wiki with the AMS Exam Database. Thanks to Christina Koch and Bernhard Konrad.
- To help students prepare for their midterm exams, the syllabus for Math101, Math103, Math105, and Math110 were added. Each syllabus includes links to the category pages of the given topics. Thanks to Carmen Bruni, Bernhard Konrad, Iain Moyles, Christina Koch and Pam Sargent.
- Apparently, the first midterm was on Riemann sums and the Fundamental theorem of Calculus. Thank you Christina Koch for this screenshot on Feb 6th 2014.
- To prettify the list of questions on category pages, Bernhard Konrad and Will Thompson created a new template.
- Will Thompson and David M. Thompson made a great banner to celebrate our 2 year anniversary on Feb 20th 2014
 Celebrating two years of MER.
- Using the Variables extension, Bernhard Konrad refined some of the architecture so that general information about courses, exams, and layout, can be stored in one place only. With Carmen Bruni this was used to great effect on the course pages, with Will Thompson this was exploited to make changing the colour scheme easier and more convenient.
- An additional feedback option using google forms was included by Christina Koch to inspire more feedback. Will Thompson created a suitable home for the form at the bottom of each solution box.
- Iain Moyles and Bernhard Konrad built on that idea and added a google form to allow anyone to suggest a new or alternative solution.
- Will Thompson moved the rating bar out of the navigation bar to a better home at the bottom of the question page.
- After a redesign of the navigation bar the question pages have a more modern and slick look. They also display the Easiness of each question. Thank you Bernhard Konrad. Will Thompson further refined the design.
- Apparently, voting on the easiness of a question is very popular among Math 103 students. This Math 103 question is the first question to receive more than 10 easiness votes.
- On the question pages, student looking for additional help are now reminded of the Math Learning Centre. We also offer help finding a private tutor. Thanks to Bernhard Konrad and Iain Moyles.
- A slick Google analytics script records the time that students spend on a question page before opening the solution box. We hope to use this insight to better understand how our resource is used. Thanks to Iain Moyles and Bernhard Konrad for this idea and its technical implementation.
- Our FL-TLEF grant application is successful! With these funds from flexible learning we will hire a RA to study the effectiveness of our resource!
- No joke: On April 1st 2014 the MER wiki team solved its 1000th good quality solution!
- We are now on the google play store! Download the MER study helper app here. Programmed by Bernhard Konrad with help from Michael Lindstrom and Will Thompson.
- The MER team prepared and presented a poster at the Carl Wiemann Science Education Initiative End of Year event. Thank you to Carmen Bruni, Christina Koch, Bernhard Konrad, Michael Lindstrom, Will Thompson, and Iain Moyles.
- In four workshops with a total of 32 participants David Kohler gives valuable general study tips. Thank you also to the helpers Bernhard Konrad, Will Thompson, and Iain Moyles.
- On Wednesday 24th 2014, the day before the Math 103, 105, and 110 exams, MER creates so much traffic that the UBC wiki server crashes. This is the first time since the inception of the UBC wiki that it crashed due to overuse. After an hour of hectic email exchanges with system admins, as well as forum posts, emails, and phone calls from panicking students, the service is finally restored when UBC adds additional cores to its wiki servers.
- Students used the rating bar feature almost 3000 times to rate the easiness of previous exam questions.
- During the exam period, our team answered 75 typo or question reports on existing solutions. Several typos were removed and solutions were clarified. Thank you to Bernhard Konrad, Iain Moyles, Carmen Bruni, and Christina Koch for responding so quickly.
- The private tutor matching brought together several students and private tutors (not necessarily MER contributors). This new feature was brought up and realized by Bernhard Konrad and Iain Moyles.
- In the Solution writing contest students were invited to contribute their own solutions to the wiki. We received 22 good submissions which were reviewed and are now fully integrated in the MER. Three lucky winners were drawn at random to receive $20 UBC food gift cards. Sponsored and initiated by Iain Moyles.
- The following 7 exams were completed
- MATH101 - April 2013
- MATH103 - April 2013
- MATH105 - April 2013
- MATH110 - April 2013
- MATH152 - April 2012 & April 2013
- MATH215 - December 2013
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| Sep - Dec 2013 (Winter Term 1, 2013-2014 school year)
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- Committee:
- Committee wrote and submitted a grant proposal for the Teaching and Learning Extension Fund. Thanks to Christina Koch, Bernhard Konrad, Iain Moyles, Carmen Bruni, Kyle Hambrook, Edward Kroc.
- Committee wrote and submitted an application for the Innovative Dissemination of Research Award. Thanks to Christina Koch, Bernhard Konrad, Iain Moyles, Carmen Bruni, Vincent Chan, Kyle Hambrook, Edward Kroc.
- Math 110 pilot student project: Instructor Tom Wong agreed to make his final exam review session for MATH 110, section 1, into a "solution-writing" session. We posted hints, but refrained from posting solutions to last year's Math 110 December exam on the wiki. Students (in groups) were then given 3-4 problems from the Math 110 December 2012 exam and asked to write full and complete solutions. These solutions later served as reference for the solutions that were put on the wiki. Thanks to Thomas Wong and Christina Koch.
- The tagging system was revisited. Several new tags were added, many questions were tagged, additional content and videos were added to some tag main pages. Thanks to Carmen Bruni and Bernhard Konrad.
- The Contributors Guide was completely restructured and partially rewritten. Thanks to Christina Koch and Bernhard Konrad.
- Math Exam Resources is mentioned at openEd.
- Various advertisement emails and posters were sent to instructors and undergrads and distributed in the MLC.
- The exam progress counter was redone to more accurately reflect how much work is already completed. Thanks to Carmen Bruni, Iain Moyles and Bernhard Konrad.
- We get our own email alias
- Organization is moved to hojoki.
- We created a github account for any non-wiki code.
- The following 7 exams were completed
- MATH100 - December 2010 & December 2012
- MATH102 - December 2012
- MATH104 - December 2012
- MATH110 - December 2012
- MATH215 - December 2011
- MATH221 - April 2013
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| Summer 2013
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- Discussions with CTLT wiki staff as to new possibilities
- Formation of a leadership/governing committee
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| Jan - Apr 2013 (Winter Term 2, 2012-2013 school year)
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- The following 6 exams were completed
- MATH101 - April 2012
- MATH103 - April 2012
- MATH105 - April 2012
- MATH110 - April 2011 & April 2012
- MATH152 - April 2010
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| Sep - Dec 2012 (Winter Term 1, 2012-2013 school year)
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- The following 9 exams were completed
- MATH100 - December 2011
- MATH102 - December 2011
- MATH104 - December 2010 & December 2011
- MATH110 - December 2010 & December 2011
- MATH220 - December 2011
- MATH221 - December 2011
- MATH257 - December 2011
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| Jan-Apr 2012 (Winter Term 2, 2011-2012 school year)
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- Wiki created.
- Dynamic Page Lists (dpl) are heavily used to organize content and for peer-review quality control.
- Content focuses on Term 2 courses: MATH 101, 103, 105.
- Within a few weeks the main page gets almost 10000 clicks, 1500 of which are in the 12 hours before big final exam (one click every 30 seconds).
- Main architect of page design and architecture: David Kohler with help from Steve Bennoun, Adrian Keet and Bernhard Konrad.
- Main contributors of content: Cindy Blois, Carmen Bruni, Cameron Christou, Robert Fraser, Isabell Graf, Kyle Hambrook, Galo Higuera Rojo, Robert Klinzmann, David Kohler, Bernhard Konrad, Eva Koo, Michael Lindstrom, Iain Moyles, Simon Rose, William Thompson, Simon Tse, Erick Wong, Erin Moulding
- The following 15 exams were completed
- MATH101 - April 2005 & April 2006 & April 2007 & April 2008 & April 2009 & April 2010 & April 2011
- MATH103 - April 2009 & April 2010 & April 2011
- MATH105 - April 2010 & April 2011
- MATH152 - April 2011
- MATH220 - April 2005 & April 2011
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Current and Past Contributors
Note: The list below is not up to date.
The following 22 users are the current contributors to the MER Project:
To be listed as a participant, simply add your userpage to the category MER Participant by adding [[Category:MER Participant]] at the end of your userpage.
