High-quality tasks for e-assessment in mathematics

Abstract

Abstract This paper is dedicated to e-assessment in mathematics and the development of the corresponding electronic tasks. Due to its electronic nature e-assessment can be used to efficiently provide a huge number of tasks for training. This makes it a valuable tool for large classes, which are typical for mathematics as a service subject. In order to develop good tasks, one can address different aspects, e.g. the randomization of problems under the restriction that they are comparable with regard to fairness, providing open-ended tasks to demonstrate understanding rather than guesses and the handling of errors, i.e. how to cope with mistakes made by students. When it comes to demonstrate understanding, mathematical proofs play a prominent role and we present a way how to transform them to an electronic task in form of a proof puzzle. A further aspect of tasks is their authenticity with regard to today’s work environment, which goes along with the application of specialized software. In this contribution we describe how to deal with each of the mentioned aspects of tasks.