Proteus
Proteus (PreTeXt-Runestone: Open Textbooks Engaging Undergraduates in STEM) is an NSF-funded research project investigating the use of interactive questions in open mathematics textbooks and their impact on undergraduate student learning.
More specifically, the project is focused on two questions:
- How do groups of textbook users (students, teachers, authors, and researchers) work together to write interactive questions designed to elicit multiple ways of students’ thinking in classrooms?
- How do students and instructors use those interactive textbook questions in their classrooms?
The textbooks we are studying are written in the authoring language PreTeXt and hosted on Runestone Academy, which allows for the rich collection of data about how readers engage with the textbooks and interactive questions. As this project is focuses on the teaching and learning of calculus and linear algebra, we are using the textbooks:
- Active Calculus by Matt Boelkins
- APEX Calculus by Greg Hartman, Sean Fitzpatrick (editor)
- A First Course in Linear Algebra by Robert A. Beezer
- Understanding Linear Algebra by David Austin
Initial work began on Proteus in the fall of 2024. We will be sharing updates on our progress and findings as they become available.