Support matrices is a digital tool that helps students to keep track of their progress in sections of a course that include exercise or training tasks and which also helps the teacher to identify tasks that cause difficulties in the student group. In this way, the teacher can adapt the teaching so that the focus ends up where it does the most good.
The Support Matrices tool has been developed (in the subject mathematics at KAU) for courses where students need to do many training exercises to assimilate the content of the course. The purpose of the tool is to give both students and teachers a clear picture of the students’ progress in the work with the exercises.
Students report their progression by marking whether they have completed the task themselves (green), completed the task with the help of teachers, friends or the Internet (yellow), or failed the task (red). Once a week, the system generates a group-level report, which teachers and teachers’ assistants use to formatively adapt teaching. The self-assessments are anonymous, but students are encouraged to share their matrixes with the teacher. It is especially important if it goes very well (The student is given new challenges) or if it goes very badly (More support can be offered).
Two presentations on support matrices were held at UPE’s conference Från campus till online 2020 (From campus to online 2020)
Stödmatriser som feedbackverktyg för både studenter och lärare (Support matrices as a feedback tool for both students and teachers)
(Focus on how the tool affects the teaching)
Presenters: Mirela Vinerean Bernhoff, Lena Nässla (23 min.) (Mix of Swedish and English)
Verktyget stödmatriser (The support matrices tool)
(Focus on the tool itself)
Presenters: Lena Nässla (24 min.) (only in Swedish)
References
Vinerean, M., Nässla, L., & Liljekvist, Y. (2021). Self-evaluation in mathematics education for engineering students – a digital tool supporting both students and teachers. In N. Jakobsson & C. Vikström (Eds.), Bidrag från universitetspedagogisk konferens 2020 (pdf) (Contribution from the University Pedagogical Conference 2020) (p. 113–130). Universitetspedagogiska enheten Karlstads universitet.