Introduction

SPIRIT Maths Survey, whose full name is SPIRIT Maths: Students’ Perceptions Informing and Redefining Teaching of Mathematics in Higher Education, aims to ask first year students from Faculty of Engineering and Science and the Faculty of Business and Humanities about their experience with learning mathematics in MTU Cork. Responses from students from each faculty will be used to improve digital maths resources.

For an individual student, the online diagnostic test will generate an instantaneous personalised report and a targeted action plan, if required. Dependent on the students’ performance they will be targeted with a suite of digital resources. These resources will include Numbas, an e-learning platform which enables the learner to access banks of randomised questions which can provide hints and full solutions allowing for direct engagement and instantaneous feedback. This platform has been extremely successful when implemented within the department across a suite of programmes following funding by the National Forum.

A second resource will be videos that will be made to address the most common maths problems faced by students in Year 1.  Those videos will include videos of past exam questions as well as supporting videos of relevant material.

The development of focused and context-specific digital resources will ensure that students will benefit from the truly multidisciplinary approach adopted in the project.

SPIRIT Maths Project was funded by the National Teaching Forum under the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement Funding in Higher Education 2019 call and approved by the CIT Research Ethics Committee in April 2020.

SPIRIT Maths Survey values your privacy and recognises the need to process your personal data in a fair and lawful manner in accordance with the legal rules laid out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018. Student confidentiality is a central principle of SPIRIT Maths Survey. This privacy notice will provide you with information about the personal data we collect and how that personal data is processed.

What personal data do we collect?

• Age
• Course
• Leaving Cert Maths Grade

SPIRIT Maths Survey does not collect identifiable information. The results are anonymous.

 We rely on your consent in order to process your personal data. You provide this consent to the survey company when you agree to participate in the survey.

Respondents need to be at least 18 years of age to take part in the survey. If a respondent enters their age as under 18 in response to the first question of the survey, they will be directed to exit the survey.

The survey data WILL NOT:

• identify any one individual student or small group of students
• be used for marketing
• be sold

The survey might provide, occasionally, access to a third party, e.g. a researcher, to anonymised data collected through SPIRIT Maths for academic research purposes. As data is anonymous, no matching of the answers to a specific person will be possible.

Queries, contacts, right of complaint

You have a right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. While we recommend that you raise any concerns or queries with us first, you may contact that Office at info@dataprotection.ie or by writing to the Data Protection Commissioner, Canal House, Station Road, Portarlington, Co. Laois. If you reside in the EEA, you can find out more information about your rights at https://www.dataprotection.ie.

If you have any other questions about the survey, you can contact Dr. Violeta Morari.

 violeta.morari@mtu.ie