Mathematics of Finance:
an independent learning course
Presented by: Gary Helmer, Mohawk College
Background
The Courses
Mathematics of Finance is a traditional course for students in business
programs at many Canadian colleges. Mathematics of Finance is also a
course for many technology program students at Mohawk College in Hamilton
Ontario.
The traditional content includes the basics of interest calculations,
including various annuities and perpetuities, amortization, sinking
funds, bonds, net present value and project capitalization. Typical
applications include promissory notes, investment and loan calculations,
mortgages, bonds, investment option comparisons, etc.
Both of the developers, Professors Helen Dakin and Gary Helmer have
taught this course at Mohawk College.
Course Delivery Objectives
Mathematics of Finance is delivered in a traditional classroom environment
at Mohawk College, both as daytime courses and as classroom evening
courses, through Continuing Education.
Our goal is to provide Mathematics of Finance on a self paced, independent
study basis through Distance Education, using computer delivery.
Our target audience includes students who choose to take Mathematics
of Finance while on a cooperative education work semester, students
who may reside locally but cannot attend regularly scheduled classes
and those who simply choose the flexibility of this alternate delivery
style.
The Development Project
Several years ago, we were involved in a development project which used
Scientific Notebook as a development platform and courseware delivery
vehicle.
That experience led us to the decision to follow that route to develop
and implement the Mathematics of Finance course.
Scientific Notebook was selected for numerous reasons, including:
· the excellent mathematics editing capabilities and natural
integration of text and mathematics.
· the ability to easily include graphics and audio clips.
· the web browser features, allowing hyperlinking and access
over the internet.
· the user-friendly interface and document navigation features.
· the Exam Builder utility which allows us to create self-quizzes
in the Scientific Notebook environment.
The Courseware
Our goal was to design an effective model for the delivery of the courseware.
The courseware can be viewed by pasting the following URL into the Scientific
Notebook File/Open Location dialogue box.
http://vulcan.mohawkc.on.ca/math/sncourseware/mathoffinance/coursetoc.tex
Accessing the Courseware
To view the software you will need to have Scientific Notebook installed
on your computer.
Scientific Notebook can be downloaded in either of two versions.
· Viewer Version: This version is free (approx. 8 Mb download)
and will allow you to view the courseware but does not include the math
engine and so you will not be able to run the quizzes.
· 30 day Trial Version: This is a full working version of the
software (approx. 24 Mb download) but includes a time-lock which makes
it usable for only 30 days, unless you then purchase it.
Both downloads are available at:
http://www.mackichan.com/
The Development
The task involved creating over 800 hyper-linked Scientific Notebook
documents, nearly 800 audio clips, hundreds of graphics, numerous quizzes
and spreadsheets. The material is structured in a model which is easily
navigated by students. Unfortunately, we did not track our time working
on the course development, but it included several thousand hours spread
over several years.
The courseware includes instructional content documents which present
and explain Mathematics of Finance concepts and techniques. Numerous
Examples are presented in a clear and concise manner, with detailed
analyses and calculations, which explore the concepts and calculations.
These components are interspersed with audio clips which reinforce the
concepts and enhance the learning experience for the students. Analyses
and Calculations documents include graphics, mostly of timeline diagrams,
which are the primary analysis instrument.
Exercises with hyperlinks to full solutions provide practice in a relatively
traditional form. A series of quizzes and mini-quizzes (approx. 73 separate
quizzes) increase the opportunity for students to practice their Mathematics
of Finance problem solving techniques. The quizzes are developed using
the Exam Builder software included with Scientific Notebook. Quizzes
are generated by randomly selecting questions with randomly generated
variable values, providing a unique quiz each time a student selects
one.
The quizzes are computer scored but records are not kept and students
can repeat quizzes as often as they choose to. Immediate feedback includes
the quiz score and full detailed solutions to all quiz questions.
An additional feature of the courseware is a series of Excel and Lotus
1-2-3 spreadsheets designed to help students explore a variety of Mathematics
of Finance concepts and schedules.
Navigation
The courseware is designed as a series of modules which students can
navigate in either of two ways.
Each module has a Module Map, which is a fully hyper-linked table of
contents allowing students to directly access any component of the courseware
for that module.
The courseware is also structured in a manner that allows the students
to navigate the courseware documents in a sequential fashion, using
the "Next Document" icon on the Link Toolbar included with
Scientific Notebook.
Implementation
The course has been implemented as a Distance Education course at Mohawk
College. It is available on a continuous intake basis, and jointly run
by the two course developers. This allows students the flexibility to
contact either professor, by phone or E-mail, for assistance. However
each student is assigned to a specific 'marking professor', providing
consistency and security in knowing who marks the tests.
The courseware is provided on a CD and is accompanied by approximately
200 pages in a printed Course Guide. The Guide includes the content
of many of the courseware documents, but does not include the Example
analyses and calculations. The Course Guide does not replace the computer-based
courseware. Students are required to have Scientific Notebook, or access
to it. Local students can choose to access the courseware through the
College's open access labs rather than purchase Scientific Notebook,
although most choose to buy it.
Assessment
Assessment consists of separate module Assignments (worth 25% of the
final course grade) and three tests worth 25% each. Students report
to a College testing facility to write the traditional paper and pencil
tests. Students may arrange to write tests off-campus, provided they
are supervised by a College approved invigilator. The Assignments are
comprehensive and are also traditional paper and pencil based. Certain
Assignments include Excel or Lotus spreadsheet activities.
Contacts
Contact between faculty and students is mostly by phone and E-mail.
Shortly after a student registers for the course, a professor contacts
the student (usually by telephone) to verify that he/she has the software
and courseware installed and working. The initial phone call allows
us to identify the individual's academic profile and, hopefully, initiate
communications which invite the student to feel comfortable contacting
us. Our experience suggests that E-mail provides an effective interaction
with individuals.
A web-based (html) Course Noticeboard is also maintained, which provides
students with current course information and includes posted corrections
to the courseware and a FAQ listing.
http://www.mohawkcollege.ca/dept/math/mof/noticeboard.html
Summary
Student feedback has been highly positive and course completion and
success rates are at least as good as for traditional Mathematics of
Finance courses.
As courseware developers, it is important to us to be able to work independently
of a development "team". Utilizing Scientific Notebook, both
as a development platform and a delivery platform, provides a familiar
environment since we both use Scientific Notebook routinely in our courses
at Mohawk College, which has a site licence for Scientific Notebook.
That means we don't have to become experts in development and/or course
delivery software such as Authorware Professional and WebCT or any of
the other commonly used platforms. Nor do we have the problems of scheduling
and working through third party software experts.
Working with Scientific Notebook also permits us to work independently
of each other. Since we both teach full-time, scheduling time together
to develop courseware is difficult. We are able to meet frequently to
plan and review our work, but we mostly develop material when and where
it is convenient to do so.
Feedback
The courseware continues to be updated and we seek your comments and
suggestions for improving its contents and/or delivery.
Helen Dakin, Mathematics Department, Mohawk College
helen.dakin@mohawkcollege.ca
Gary Helmer, Mathematics Department, Mohawk College
gary.helmer@mohawkcollege.ca
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