Randomizing maths problems to meet the learning needs of large classes in Nairobi, Kenya

Dr Jared Ongaro is a lecturer in pure mathematics in the University of Nairobi’s School of Mathematics.

Dr Ongaro and his colleagues often teach large classes, which makes it difficult to provide unique mathematical problems for each student to solve.

They use the open-source e-learning platform, Moodle, to support their teaching but, Dr Ongaro explains, “in Moodle the problems are shuffled,” which means students will receive problems that have already been tackled by their peers. “Research has shown that even with shuffling, cheating in multiple choice examinations is somewhat easier than in an examination where questions use free-format answers, or constructed-responses,” he explains.

Dr Ongaro led a team at the university which worked with the University of Sheffield, UK, to create the SOMAS learning platform. Although they didn’t have funding for the project, a small seed grant allowed faculty from Sheffield to travel to Kenya and work with the Nairobi team to develop the platform.

“Our creativity is in how we generate free-format problems using STACK,” he says. SOMAS enables “the art of randomization,” explains Dr Ongaro. “If you have a class of 2,000 students and you’re able to create, like, 100,000 problems at the same level, this addresses a pedagogical need. No students are disadvantaged because the problems we have are at the same level, but there are so many of them that the students cannot copy.”

SOMAS is built on an installation of Moodle, and makes use of the platform’s functionality, but is adapted for the particular needs of mathematics teaching. Although it began life in the School of Mathematics, it has now been adapted for use by other departments in science, technology and engineering.

A lack of stable internet and interrupted power supplies create daily challenges for online learning, particularly outside of the city where bandwidth is often lower, but the problems encountered are not only related to infrastructure.

“The skills gap is very steep,” Dr Ongaro explains, “when you start using something for the first time, you really need to take a lot of time to learn… change doesn’t come easy, both the students and the lecturers, have to be willing to change.”

Despite the challenges, support from the university’s management have enabled the team to develop the platform and advance its use. “The university considers SOMAS very important. We get lots of support from the Principal, the Vice Chancellor and all the other organs of the university,” Dr Ongaro notes, noting that both technical support and support to train faculty members has been available.

Although SOMAS existed prior to the pandemic, the need to find new ways of enabling learning during the closure of the university saw it used much more widely. “It really gave us a springboard to study online during the pandemic,” says Dr Ongaro.

Dr Ongaro believes that continuous training and support is needed, to ensure that the platform and similar innovations in teaching and learning can be sustained.

“Covid-19 gave us a push in innovation and technology adoption. It’s important that we continue with that curve,” says Dr Ongaro, “we should not lose this opportunity… we need continuous training and continuous support.”

He suggests that each course needs to introduce a blended component, to ensure that some element of online learning is incorporated beyond Covid-19, and that efforts are needed to motivate faculty, so that there is no “roll back” in the progress that has been made in using technology for learning in the course of the last year. “There should be some incentives to make sure that these kind innovations don’t die off,” Dr Ongaro says.

Interview conducted by Dr Augustine Mwangi, University of Nairobi.