Welcome to the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre home page - the first port of call for our current undergraduate students and prospective students for any of our programs.
We aim to prepare students for professional careers, not only in mathematics and statistics, but also across the range of pure and applied sciences, commerce, engineering, industry and technology. Our undergraduate subjects train you in essential skills such as logical reasoning, sophisticated problem solving, research skills and oral and written communication. These transferable skills are invaluable for professional life in any discipline.
Oasis is our unified home for mathematics and statistics student support, both online and in person. Oasis currently includes mathSpace, mathAssist, learning resources, and reading packs.
The School's Vacation Scholarship Program provides selected students (from Melbourne or elsewhere) with a supervised introduction to research in mathematics or statistics. It is particularly recommended for students seriously considering University of Melbourne Mathematics and Statistics postgraduate research programs (eg. MSc, RHD).
The Melbourne University Mathematics and Statistics Society, also known as MUMS, was formed to represent maths and stats students at Melbourne University. They welcome anyone else with an interest in maths or stats. They organise a variety of activities, including seminars, trivia competitions, barbecues and of course the annual Puzzle Hunt and Maths Olympics. They also put out Paradox magazine at regular intervals.
Contact
John Banks
Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre
School of Mathematics and Statistics
Faculty of Science
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010, Australia
Tel: +61 (0)3 8344 0010
Fax: +61 (0)3 8344 4599
Tutoring with us
Each year in semesters 1 and 2, we welcome new applications for casual tutoring with the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre (MSLC). Casual tutors are employed in a wide range of first and second year subjects. Selection for tutoring work is competitive and the number of new tutors we take on each semester varies quite a lot, depending on student enrolments and the number of casual tutors who wish to continue on from previous semesters.
IMPORTANT NOTE: From 2019 onwards, all casual staff involved in teaching first or second year subjects will be required to hold a current Working With Children Check (WWWC) under Victorian Government legislation.
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Requirements
The essential requirement for an applicant to be considered is the equivalent of an undergraduate major in Mathematics or Statistics with a strong record of achievement. This means at least half of your final year of undergraduate study was in mathematics and/or statistics.
Preference will be given to applicants who are currently undertaking a postgraduate degree in Mathematics or Statistics. This does not include postgraduate study in Physics or Engineering.
Limited opportunities are available for final year undergraduate students who are majoring in mathematics and statistics and have a strong academic record. These students may be offered work in the School’s mathAssist program or as assistants in the School’s Workshop classes.
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How to apply
We take applications online using the University of Melbourne’s Casual Tutor Recruitment System (CTRS):
https://ctrs.app.unimelb.edu.au
The first thing you will need to do is create a CTRS account by following the appropriate link on that page. This is a one-off step and you will be able use the same account and personal profile to apply for tutoring in Mathematics and Statistics (as well as several other Schools at The University of Melbourne) in future semesters. When creating your profile, you will be asked to supply
- a copy of your CV.
- a copy of a relevant Academic Transcript, showing details of your studies in Mathematics or Statistics.
so make sure you have these at hand. Once this set-up work is out of the way, you are ready to go in and answer a (very) few standard questions before filling in your available times in a timetable.
If tutoring work for which your Mathematics or Statistics background appears to be a good match becomes available, we will contact you at the email address you supply in the CTRS to arrange an interview.
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What about summer tutoring?
For our summer semester tutoring, application is by invitation only for tutors who have previously tutored with us in the subjects we offer in the summer. This is due to the accelerated delivery schedule of our summer teaching and the difficulty of providing appropriate support for new tutors during the summer period.
Oasis is the home of mathematics and statistics student support, both online and in person. Oasis currently includes mathSpace, mathAssist, learning resources, and reading packs.
Textbooks, practice problems, and additional online support materials will be available here as they become available in the future.
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mathSpace - a place to study with friends
The mathSpace is a social learning space for students to collaborate on their mathematical ideas. Facilities are provided for students to study and work on mathematics together. The mathSpace is located on the ground floor of Peter Hall building and is open during normal building access hours.
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mathAssist - drop-in help for learning mathematics
mathAssist is a drop-in space for Mathematics and Statistics students to develop their mathematical understanding with support from Learning Assistants (formerly known as tutor-on-duty). There is a particular emphasis on remedying gaps in students background or assumed knowledge.
While students are encouraged to seek help with concepts they are having trouble with, mathAssist is not a place to request answers or solutions. Rather, our aim is to aid students in developing critical thinking skills to become better mathematical learners and practitioners and to make sure that students have the assumed knowledge they require for the subjects they are taking.
Your Learning Assistants can help with:
- Problem solving skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Studying techniques
- Fostering collaboration opportunities
- Background knowledge
- Obtaining additional study resources
When and Where: Starting in week 2, mathAssist runs everyday (Monday - Friday) from 12pm - 2pm (excluding the mid-semester break). This semester mathAssist will run online on Mondays and Wednesdays and in-person on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday. See here for information on accessing an online session (accessible to current mathematics & statistics students only). In person sessions are held in the mathAssist room, ground floor, Peter Hall building.
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Maths and stats help for non-maths subjects
The Maths and Stats drop-ins service is a peer-support programme to help students with mathematics, statistics and quantitative skills that they need for their studies. It’s open to students from any discipline. Students can get help from a peer assistant with the maths and statistics needed in their own disciplines.
This service is mainly aimed at non-mathematics students. Mathematics and Statistics students are recommended to use mathAssist instead.
When and Where: help is available in the University ERC library or via Zoom. See here for times and places.
- Reading packs - reading material for prerequisite knowledge
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Learning Resources - for academics and teachers
The Learning and Teaching resources below have been developed by the MSLC to support teaching & learning in the School.
- Conceptual Learning with Interactive Applets - applets for calculus, probability, statistics and other areas
- Chocs and Blocks - an interactive activity investigating sampling and variability
- Sudoku experiment - a tutorial and lab activity covering study design and data collection
The Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre conducts research into teaching and learning in addition to its major responsibilities supporting the undergraduate teaching program of the School.
Our research aims to support innovations in teaching and learning, including the implementation of new technologies. As part of this research program we run an Occasional Seminar Series, which incorporates talks by Centre staff as well as invited external speakers. If you are interested in giving a talk as part of this Series, please email Dr Robert Maillardet, the Series Coordinator, (rjmail@unimelb.edu.au). For seminar announcements, subscribe to the mailing list here.
Previous seminars
Taking care with context: Curating suitable data for teaching statistics
A/Prof Sue Finch (Joint work with Prof Ian Gordon)
29 April 2022
Providing a rich context has become a sine qua non of principled teaching of applied statistics and statistical literacy. With increasing opportunities to access secondary data via online sources, there should be increasing opportunity to work with rich context. What do instructors need to consider when looking for genuine data sets? We share our story of investigating the base R ‘datasets’ package as a source for introductory tertiary level statistics teaching, and what we found when we looked at the source information for four of these (potentially useful) datasets in detail. The failure to describe and retain important contextual information, raises questions about the credibility of the data involved for statistical inference. The curators, distributors and users of these data need to examine, where possible, the primary sources in order to accurately preserve the context and optimize pedagogical opportunities.
Student Relationship Engagement System (SRES): what is it and what can we do with it?
Dr Anthony Morphett, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
24 March 2022
SRES (Student Relationship Engagement System) is an online database for storing student data – assignment marks, class attendance, etc – and sending automated, customised emails to targeted students – for instance, everyone who missed a class recently, students who failed the assignment, or students who got full marks on the assignment. SRES was developed by academics at the University of Sydney, and it is available to us thanks to the Faculty of Science. In this presentation, I’ll give a demo of SRES and show how I’ve been using it in Calculus 2 – namely, for recording students’ attendance at tutorials, and then contacting students who are at risk in the lead-up to census date.
Next Generation Tutorial Room Pilot Update/Demo
MSLC staff, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
10 November 2021
Abstract: Over the last few weeks the MSLC staff have tested various vendor options for large touchscreen smart boards for pilot deployment in a small number of our tutorial spaces. In our testing we have considered various ways this technology could be deployed in tutorials across our full range of subjects. In this seminar we discuss the various relevant features of the boards and show particular examples of how tutorial and lab activities can be redesigned to make use of these technologies.
Automated Assessment in Mathematics and Statistics - Part 2
Anthony Morphett, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
27 October 2021
Abstract: We have used WebWork for automated assessment in some of our large undergraduate subjects for several years now. In this talk, we’ll discuss some of the ways that we use automated, randomised assessment in Calculus 2 and Linear Algebra. This includes scaffolding students through simple proofs and helping develop their mathematical communication as well as practice at routine exercises. I will also demonstrate a new automated assessment platform, Wiris, which is likely to become available as part of the suite of technologies offered by Learning Environments.
Automated Assessment in Mathematics and Statistics - Part 1
John Banks, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
13 October 2021
Abstract: We have implemented automated assessment using WebWorK for 3 years now across several subjects (7 subjects in 2021). This talk gives a survey of the ways this has been done in various subjects, focussing particularly on the integration of written and online assessed work in MAST10005 and the use of “step-wise questions” to support learning of multi-step techniques where students experience difficulty choosing the appropriate approach at various steps in the process.In a follow up talk, we will discuss a new automated assessment platform Wiris which is likely to become available as part of the suite of technologies offered by Learning Environments.
Introducing Students to the Community of Mathematicians and Statisticians
Chris Duffy, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
29 September 2021
Abstract: Faced with a cohort of MathEd students who didn’t really understand the broader context of the work they were doing in the classroom, I devised an assignment activity to introduce these students to the community of mathematicians and statisticians. I then realised that this activity was (near) zero effort method to introduce students of all kinds to the broader context of their technical studies.
These pages contain information about undergraduate mathematics and statistics options to help you plan your course. Please choose from the options below.
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First-year Mathematics and Statistics
Information for students choosing first-year subjects.
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Majors in mathematical and statistical sciences
Information for students wishing to specialise in mathematics, statistics and related areas.
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Diploma in Mathematical Sciences
Study mathematics and statistics alongside another major with the concurrent diploma.
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Mathematics and Statistics electives or breadth
Study mathematics and statistics to complement another discipline.