Project Launch: E-Learning in Mathematics Education
Studies |
About the project
With around 30,000 exams per year, the Department of Mathematics provides the mathematics education in almost all TUM schools. The aim of the project is to develop an e-learning platform for these students. It offers them the opportunity to work independently on electronic tasks related to the content of the introductory mathematics courses of their degree program. The TUM is funding the development of the e-learning platform as part of the ideas competition “Academic Enrichment of the Excellence Strategy” 2025/2026.
Implementation with STACK
In collaboration with the lecturers and course tutors, the project team creates the assignments using the e-learning tool STACK. It is already integrated into Moodle, the TUM’s central learning platform, and offers many advantages compared to conventional forms of learning:
- free text input of formulas and results
- automatic correction based on a computer algebra package
- randomization of the tasks by a random generator
- immediate feedback including a detailed sample solution
- individualized feedback that takes the students’ input into account
The TUM has already been using STACK in its courses for several years. The feedback from students has been extremely positive: According to a survey conducted as part of the lectures Advanced Mathematics 1 for Mechanical and Civil Engineering in the winter semester 2024/25, 180 of the 232 students surveyed found that the Moodle questions were a good or valuable addition to the lectures and exercises. Florian Lindemann even received the special award for digital teaching from the Electrical and Computer Engineering student council in 2020.
TUM-wide impact
Thanks to the SASIM cooperation established in 2024, in which other universities such as the TU Berlin and the ETH Zurich are involved, the project team can draw on an extensive pool of tasks from other universities, which can be adapted to the specific needs of the TUM and gradually expanded across schools. The platform will thus have a significant positive impact on the mathematics education of a vast number of students from different degree programs.
About the ideas competition
With the ideas competition “Academic Enrichment of the Excellence Strategy” 2025/2026, the TUM promotes new initiatives, formats, contents and structures in the area of teaching, learning and assessment that contribute to the further development of teaching at the TUM. In each funding round, it supports between 20 and 30 projects, with the project duration spanning two calendar years.
Schools, professors, central service institutions and student representatives are eligible to submit proposals. The jury is chaired by the current Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and includes representatives of the professorial staff, students, mid-level academic staff as well as academic support staff.