Strategies for building maths skills in a geospatial MSc class using the web based e-assessment software Numbas

Students on the geospatial MSc programmes start with very varied levels of maths experience/skills. The students all need to become capable with all the maths concepts needed for the degree programme, but without boring those who can already do them. The Numbas software is freely available, open source and very mathematically capable (https://www.numbas.org.uk/). It facilitates creation of questions and exams which are randomizable, so students can repeat them many times for practice as needed. The randomizable nature of the questions can also be helpful for remote learning, as everyone has a test with different answers. This work describes how the tests and learning material have been arranged within the module to encourage timely self-learning of maths topics linked to geospatial themes, with initial low stakes assessments followed by higher stakes summative assessment, and discusses experiences with integrating Numbas over the last four years.