Project Lead: Dr Simona Montagnana, Department of Economics

The project, which was funded by the Teaching Development Fund (TDF) Shape in 2022/23 aims, to solve the problem of mathematically underprepared students starting postgraduate programs by offering a web-based maths Bootcamp. Some students fit the entry requirements on paper but due to long breaks in study, or, from differences in the content they have studied, struggle to ‘hit the ground running’. This is a familiar issue with the MSc Applied Economics programmes (both on-campus and online).

The Bootcamp will be a free, self-study, open access, online course. Zero to Hero, which is released under the creative commons, serves as a template for the course. It contains written explanations, short videos and interactive questions with full solutions.

The Bootcamp will be created by using an open-source software and hosted on GitHub, we, therefore, expect zero running costs. In the future, the Bootcamp could become a MOOC.

Funding will be used to hire additional staff to work on the project, to outsource the video recording of some videos, and to pay current students for their feedback on the resource. A frame time of six-eight months is expected.

Dr Montagnana will report back on this project in Summer 2024.