MATHia is an AI-driven online math program that was incorporated into the Danvers math curriculum three years ago. The program is controversial among students, though, as some see it as an adaptive way of learning math, while others believe that it is not teaching math the correct way.
MATHia features progress feedback, varied question formats, and live hints. The online program is linked to the in-class work that we do as students with the Carnegie Learning work books. Oftentimes, MATHia problems relate to the content which is focused on in class, which is why teachers assign this online work to align with different units.
Though these features may seem positive, many students believe the hints to be useless and misleading. MATHia’s hints often simply repeat the question, which doesn’t actually help solve the problem. Additionally, it is often easy for students to notice patterns within MATHia problems, which allows them to effectively “cheat” the system, and resulting in memorization rather than true learning.
Many levels of MATHia score students based on how well they do, which can result in a poor grade if the student doesn’t understand the task required. MATHia does not provide understandable directions for students, which prevents them from learning the material to actually correct their grade and properly address the proble. On top of that, Mathia’s confusing layout often causes difficulty and misunderstanding while students attempt to solve problems. It is easy for students to get frustrated, give up, and get fall behind.
After a recent survey conducted with students in a Freshman math class, we found that 14 out of 17 students believe that MATHia is not effective, and that all 17 students would not complete MATHia practice if it was not required in the curriculum.
When students were asked to elaborate on their opinions with MATHia, one student said that it was “Useless [and] does not teach, much better to spend time with the teacher explaining the basic concept.”
Another student stated “I am not learning anything in the Concept Builders (fixed sequences of problems on MATHia). I also hate how it will send me all the way back for one mistake.”
After interviewing a math teacher who had more of a positive attitude towards MATHia, they shared their opinion by stating “I think that MATHia has some really quality problems on it. When students take it seriously, the problems can be much more effective than other types of math work that we do.”
Though MATHia receives a variety of different opinions from both teachers and students, Danvers will likely continue to implement it alongside the Carnegie curriculum.
