Come and join us next Tuesday at our Teaching & Learning conference where Julie Kevill and I will be presenting a paper and hands-on workshop, at Middlesex University in London. More information here: http://elearn.mdx.ac.uk/eassessment/register.php

“We have a huge numeracy problem in this country…We see having poor numeracy skills…as a badge of honour” 1 – Carol Taylor, Director of Operations at NIACE, 2011.

Also, in Higher Education many students enter with poor levels of maths and numeracy 2 – A report by David Burghes for the CfBT Education Trust.

At Middlesex the situation is no different; a recent University–wide diagnosis revealed that a very high percentage of entry level undergraduates could not calculate with simple percentages, decimals and fractions (LDP 2010/2011).

There is clearly a considerable need for numeracy support. Delivering this support, however, is challenging for 3 main reasons: lack of time for this support, lack of motivation on the part of both students and staff to dedicate time to maths and disengagement on the part of students when confronted with traditional methods of delivering this support.

In this discussion paper we report on our findings of the diagnosis of numeracy needs conducted at Middlesex in 2010 and our experience of using a computer game called Manga High to engage students with maths support. The findings show increased student enjoyment and engagement with this type of activity. We will show how this program avoids language difficulties and is accessible to all. We will also show how the game can be used as an e-assessment tool.