The effectiveness of video in on-line maths courses: The teaching experience in engineering courses at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Learning mathematics through on-line engineering courses presents many difficulties, such as mathematical notation, differences in the level of the students, and limited applicability of the subject. With the aim of improving the learning skills of the students enrolled in Mathematical Analysis courses, we use video tutorials in addition to the educational resources, mainly textual material, organized through a weekly curriculum. The present work motivates and justifies the choice of this dynamic resource. Moreover, the creation process and development of the videos is explained in detail, and the teaching experience in several virtual classrooms of two engineering degrees at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), with an overall of 450 students, is presented. The positive assessment given by both students and teaching staff, as well as the improvement of the academic outcomes, justify the effort undertaken and the suitability of this kind of resource for teaching and learning of such mathematical courses.